An organisation is where people from various communities and backgrounds come together in a common setting to work towards a predefined goal. And every organisation has a mandatory set of policies and guidelines that all employees need to adhere to. A software development business is one such example where the company relies on the services and talents of its employees to ensure success. For this reason, employee engagement is one of the top priorities of any organisation that wants to succeed in a highly competitive market.
As a concept that has caught the attention of businesses today, employee engagement is fast becoming more important now than ever in engaging staff, and helping them find true meaning in their jobs. And employees who don’t understand how their roles contribute towards a company’s success are not likely to stick around for too long either. Engaging employees is an evolving process, and which goes through different stages, demonstrating belonging and attachment, across all levels of the organisation.
Stages of employee engagement
Attract: The first step is to attract the best talent for possible hiring. This is the stage that involves creating a positive impression of the organisation’s culture and the employee’s career.
Acquire: This stage involves how employers interact and keep consistency with prospective candidates from the time they show interest in the advertised role, to the hiring process and when they finally come on board.
Advance: Besides promotions and salary increases, this stage also involves helping employees grow in other tangible and intangible ways. Rotation of work is a great way to help employees grow experience-wise, as well as increase their responsibility and give them a sense of belonging, when done right.
Techniques to improve employee engagement
Organisations that have a highly-engaged staff outdo companies that don’t. They have higher earnings and they also recover quickly from setbacks. However, studies show that more than two-thirds of employees either are disengaged, or are indifferent at best. Poor levels of engagement is one of the main reasons for declining productivity, causing many otherwise promising staff to leave for better prospects elsewhere.
The good news is, the following five techniques can boost levels of employee engagement:
- Success roadmap. The level of clarity that employees possess about their future with the business is a decisive factor in making them stay committed to the company for a long time. This is particularly critical to the millennials, who are likely to switch jobs and look for development opportunities more frequently than their previous generations.
- Good work recognition. It is one thing to support employees through various opportunities of development within the business, but recognising their accomplishments, and cheering their success can go a long way in making employees feel like what they do matters.
- Two-way communication. Companies that operate under a veil of secrecy tend to struggle with low retention and engagement levels. Employees want to know how business decisions that affect them, what the business expects of them and what information they need that is critical to their work. Communication flows both ways, and if employees are unable to take their ideas or concerns to leadership, they will feel undervalued and ignored.
- Sense of purpose. For most employees today, especially the millennials, just showing up for work, doing their job and earning their salary is not enough. They want to feel like their work matters, that it has some purpose than just turning a profit. Aside from their own personal contributions, they want to know that the company they work for is committed to their shared goals and values.
- Fair and realistic. If leaders and organisations want to retain their employees, they should treat them with fairness and respect. Employees want to know that they will be evaluated on performance primarily, rather than factors which are beyond their control.
With the right focus on boosting engagement, companies could create a positive working environment and culture that they can thrive on for years to come.
Author: Charles Richard is a Business Analyst at TatvaSoft UK. Besides his profession, Charles likes to share his views on new and trending technical aspects. To know more about his leading mobile app development company based in London, please visit www.tatvasoft.co.uk
Photo credits: Perry Grone on Unsplash