‘Dedicated employees work with passion and find a connection with objectives of the company. But the fact is that dedicated employees have to be nurtured with proper training and motivation!’

According to a survey conducted by Gallup in 2015, only 32 percent employees are engaged at work, while the rest are just struggling to survive in a hostile work environment. Unengaged employees often leave an organization as soon as an opportunity comes their way, and companies have to bear the cost of high employee turnover.

A study by Dale Carnegie and MSW on over 1500 employees in the US, 71 percent of all employees are not fully engaged in their work, and companies have to bear the cost of $11 billion annually due to high attrition rate.

As an employer, it would be a nightmare for you to have such dispirited employees in your office. Also, bearing the cost of high attrition rate would be detrimental for the budget of any company. In this scenario, managers and policy makers need to bring remarkable change in the work culture of a company and improve employee engagement. By adopting these simple but symbolic tricks, a positive shift in employee engagement can be observed.

Make Sure Inspiring Leaders Are On Board

Leadership is not just about assigning duties and supervising the progress of ongoing projects. It has a wider spectrum, which involves understanding the needs and aspirations of employees and motivating them towards achieving desired results. Passionate and inspiring leaders inculcate the desire in employees to grow, both as an individual and as a part of the team.

Managers can turn into competent leaders only when they connect with their team members through non-work activities and informal talks to know the challenges they are facing in achieving desired results. Inspiring leaders find out-of-the-box ideas to create a rewarding environment where every employee can thrive.

Approachability and Availability of Leaders Matter

Visibility is another important criteria that makes leaders approachable in case of any query or guidance. Approachability doesn’t come just with manager’s presence in the office, but the real magic happens only when he/she is willingly available to guide the workforce towards efficient execution of tasks.

Efforts by managers to get social with the team members can have a positive impact. If the HR team is not sponsoring team events quite often, then why not plan team lunch outings by yourself or connect over coffee after office hours?

Give Employees More Opportunities for Growth

The best way to lose a resourceful employee is to make him/her feel underused. A job profile that fails to provide growth opportunities to the employee needs a revamp. Talk to your employees about their individual career goals, and know if the current profile provides them ample opportunities to achieve the same.

If it seems that the potential and skillset of an employee is underused, departmental trainings and a key role in any new project can do the justice.

See: Drawing Upon Cross-Cultural Perspectives to Employee Engagement

Employees Prefer Loud and Clear Recognition

Publicly recognizing employees for their contributions can have a positive impact on the entire team. When achievements of an employee gets recognized in the public, he/she gets the motivation to continue doing great work. And, other members in the team gear up to achieve noteworthy results and win applauds.

Rewards and Recognitions – The Elixir of Motivation

Employees work with passion when they know that their efforts will be recognized. Rewards and recognitions can be in any form, monetary or non-monetary, but it’s the feeling of being appreciated that motivates employees to further boost their performance.

Assigning important responsibilities can also make employees feel valued. But don’t just assign responsibilities. Provide proper training to develop the required skillset in employees. Training programs will not just benefit your employees, but also help your company in creating a talent pool.

When required, these trained and dedicated employees can be promoted to the next level, and recruitment costs can be saved considerably.

Create a Platform for Employee Self Service

When employees can manage their own details, they feel more associated with the overall processes and policies of a company. Personal and professional details can be accessed and updated by employees on their own with the help of a HRMS software. The Employee Self Service module of a trusted HRMS software also lets on board individuals update their IT declarations, make claims for reimbursement, view pay slips, check leave balance, apply for leaves, and so on.

Also, it creates a structured database for HR professionals, managers and employees to access anywhere and anytime. Thus transparency is established in processes, and employees can have trust on policies implemented.

Let Employees Voice their Opinion

According to the 2016 ‘Trends in Global Employee Engagement’ report, effective leaders listen to what their employees have to say, and also act on their feedback.

Such leaders believe strongly that employees can play an instrumental role in ushering their organization to success. So, why not listen to them seriously and make necessary changes to mitigate the risks involved with any new project or policy. Employee feedbacks should be welcomed and monitored to take right steps at the right time.

Towards the end, effective seamless communication is the key to an engaging work environment. So, try solving every employee query with transparency, and never let any employee feedback go unattended. Chatbot as an AI-enabled interaction platform can be adopted to handle employee queries and requests round the clock.

Author credit:

Kalpana Arya is a tech enthusiast who is presently working with techpillar.com as a Content and Marketing Expert. She finds the world of technology fascinating, and spreads awareness about different technology offerings through her blogs.

Also read: 27 Cool Employee Engagement Ideas for a Productive Workforce