Research suggests that one in three UK workers are considering leaving their jobs within the next year! This mass exodus known as the ‘Great Resignation’ and is threatening workplaces across the country.
With so many workers on the verge of leaving, businesses are under increasing pressure to hold onto their employees. This is proving to be particularly difficult for workplaces that are already feeling the financial squeeze of inflation and the pandemic in the UK.
The key to reducing resignation in your workplaces is to keep employees engaged and enthusiastic about their jobs. Here, we reveal five top tips for employee engagement so that you don’t fall victim to the Great Resignation!
How to boost employee engagement
Understanding how to boost employee engagement is the best way to secure your staff members and maintain workplace morale. Engaged employees are employees who are enthusiastic about their jobs and keen to meet workplace goals and agendas.
1. Invest in wellbeing
Employees gravitate towards jobs that benefit them. Therefore, it is vital that you focus on employee wellbeing and put measures in place to look after your staff.
In today’s society, people value their mental health so jobs that don’t serve good mental health are very difficult to fill! Workplaces can make mundane jobs seem more appealing by offering wellbeing incentives such as extra time off of work, longer lunch breaks, free mental health support services and a positive workplace environment.
When people feel good mentally, they are more likely to stick with their current situation. A good place to start would be to ask your current employees for suggestions on how to improve wellbeing in the workplace.
2. rewards & Recognitions
There is nothing more frustrating than putting all of your effort into a job only for your efforts to go unnoticed. If employees feel that their hard work isn’t appreciated, they may look to other workplaces for new jobs.
Therefore, you should try to introduce a reward & recognition system that celebrates employees for good performance. Not only will this help your staff feel more appreciated, it’s also a great way to encourage hard work and make sure that targets are met.
3. Listen More
Good workplaces cater to individual needs and take feedback to improve the employee environment. To keep employees engaged with their jobs, you should conduct regular check-in sessions to understand what each employee needs.
You should make an effort to listen carefully to each employee’s feedback and act upon what they say. Doing this will help you to create a working environment that benefits your employees. It is also a great way to show that you listen and that you care about your staff member’s wellbeing. This will make your workplace more attractive and prevent resignation.
4. Set clear goals
To keep your employees motivated, you need to provide clear goals and targets. It can become very easy to lose enthusiasm for a task if you feel like there is no real reason for it. As a result, giving your employees an end goal will make their jobs more meaningful and help to keep them enthusiastic about their role.
As well as an end goal, you should also try to set smaller targets that can be achieved throughout the working week. This could include sales targets, performance targets or revenue targets. It might also be a good idea to set personal targets for individual staff members so that they feel motivated to improve on their performance.
5. Encourage communication
One of the biggest reasons that employees choose to stay at workplaces is colleague relationships. When employees feel connected to their team members, they are more likely to stay on in their role and even build their careers within your business.
You can play a part in creating these workplace relationships by encouraging communication and socialisation. Perhaps create an appealing social area for employees to use in their breaks or host regular socials for staff members to get involved with.
While you don’t have to promote anything that will disrupt business goals, encouraging staff members to connect with each other is a fantastic way to build a positive working environment and encourage employees to stay. Encouraging communication is also a great way to keep an eye on your staff members mental health and ensure that all of your employees are on track.
IN conclusion…
Optimising engagement is the best way to encourage staff members to stay and avoid the Great Resignation. There are a number of ways that can help you start improving engagement and creating a more appealing, happier and fulfilling workplace.
Author: Rosie Buckley – Freelancer & Bookworm
Photo credit: Ketut Subiyanto on Pexels
Nice and useful article for me. Looks really efficient. Thanks for your work.