Do you believe your employees are happy? Perhaps.
Do your employees feel they are happy? That’s difficult to judge.
Most importantly, are your employees truly engaged? Keep asking this daily! It matters.
Employee happiness and engagement are often used interchangeably. However, they mean two different things, happy employees are not always engaged employees. A happy employee may be happy at work but might lack engagement. You must have noticed some of your colleagues come to work just to enjoy the companionship of co-staff, appreciate the free breakfast provided at the workplace and are only satisfied receiving salaries, without making an impact. These set of people are happy yet unproductive employees. However, an engaged employee shows an emotional commitment to their job. As an engaged employee, you will care about the role and invest a lot of time to ensure that you achieve actual results. Also, the organization will approach you to solve their problems when things go wrong. Engaged employees stay up late at night when a problem arises, and they never try to cut corners.
Is Employee Engagement a Necessity?
Research shows that there are a lot of workplace frustrations that is continually undermining the enthusiasm, energy, and performance of the best employee. A lot of employees who are prepared to give in their best in the workplace are either held back by jobs that do not suit them or bad managers that makes them feel either redundant or overused. Also, this problem is often overlooked in the workplace by the Human Resource Managers. They focus more on employee commitment and employee satisfaction. Issues related to how the organization supports the employee is repeatedly neglected. This results in frustrated employees. Managers should carefully ensure that the roles are tailor made to their employees. Additionally, they should create a work environment that would enable employees to channelize their efforts rightly. This will ensure your employees are satisfied and engaged and will not be tempted to move away so easily.
Firms that want to retain their engaged employees must participate in a lot of activities to ensure that they attain employee engagement.
Here's How:
- Respecting your staff - To be respected is a right. No employee would ever want to work someone who doesn't treat them well and disrespects their work. It is essential to respect every employee of the organization, irrespective of what they do or how well they do it
- Recognizing employees - Take pride in what your employees do. More importantly, let them know about how important they are to you.
- Investing in professional development - Most firms find it challenging to invest in training and workshops aimed at empowering the employees. However, investing in professional development opportunities is indirectly investing in the future of your organization.
- Allowing employees to pursue their pet projects - When an employee gets into the grind, he might need to look at avenues to break the monotony. As a concerned company, you should understand and explore ways to address it. Give your employees the liberty to read or pursue their field of interest for a specific period of time every day. This will always keep them engaged.
- Planning activities to strengthen relationships - Most employees will be more productive when they work with their co-workers. Try to schedule events that would give your employees time to interact with their co-workers and get to know each other better.
If you intend to take your company to the next level, you must also invest in it. Investing in employee engagement will definitely go a long way in strengthening your workforce. Believe in it, and in no time, you will see the spell work.
