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It’s obvious by now that creating a workplace based on employee engagement creates a better place to work for everyone, including you as the leader. Every process and system in the organization potentially will be improved by the introduction of employee engagement in a workplace. Through employee engagement, everyone who works for a manager will then share in her responsibilities as a leader. With the help of employee engagement, better decisions are possible based on expertise and the input of more people who have a stake in the outcome because they are now involved more directly in these decisions. This can only lead to decisions that are more supported by everyone involved and affected. Think about many potential benefits of creating a more satisfying workplace, such as lower turnover, better qualified new candidates, higher productivity, lower absenteeism, and so on.
Principles of Employee Engagement
There are certain timeless principles about employee engagement which are indisputable and will be true in any work environment. Here are examples of these basic principles about employee engagement:
- Asking employees what they think will give you better, more practical solutions to problems.
- Giving employees greater problem-solving and decision-making ability will engage them more in their jobs and organization.
- Employees do want to do a good job and they get frustrated when they feel they aren’t given the opportunity by the organization to perform to their potential.
- Improving communication throughout the organization will help employees become more engaged.
- Providing the right training and development for your employees is a good investment in everyone’s future in the organization.
- Equipping your employees with the right tools and resources will improve their productivity.
- Creating a more engaged workplace will reduce employee turnover.
- Your employees have more ability and potential than you may presently realize.
- Employees who follow the rules get upset if they believe others are allowed to break the rules and get away with it.
- Punishing failure will result in less risk-taking and less creativity in the organization in the future.
- Everyone needs to be recognized for their hard work and accomplishments on the job.
- People need feedback to grow and develop on the job.
- Everyone’s perception of fairness is different. It is important to try to understand each person’s perspective and feelings about how they are treated on the job.
- Money is not the only motivator for employees to do a good job. Intangibles such as recognition, respect, dignity, and growth (to name a few), are also very important to employees.
- Employees do care about the success and future of the organization. They have vested interest in the organization doing well and they want to be involved in achieving this goal, but they must have opportunities to give the company their support.
10 Benefits of Employee Engagement
There are countless benefits to introducing employee engagement into your organization which potentially can be realized by both yourself and those who report to you. The following are just 10 of these potential benefits:
- Greater job satisfaction: Both you and your employees will feel a greater sense of job satisfaction. You will feel more like you have the support and cooperation of everyone on your team and there will be less finger-pointing and blaming others. Employees will feel they are valued and that what they have to say is important so they can make a significant contribution.
- More positive work environment: Employee engagement creates a work environment in which everyone feels more positive about coming to work. They enjoy working on shared goals and being part of a team. They form stronger working relationships and learn to have more trust in one another as well as in their leadership.
- Less stressful workplace: Employee engagement can make work less stressful because employees have greater input and control into decisions and problem solving rather than feeling like they do not have an impact at work. Employees feel less like a victim and more in control of their destiny as an employee. As their leader, you will feel the same way.
- Cooperation throughout the organization: Employee engagement teaches everyone that they are on the same team and they should not be competing with one another. Infighting and a lack of cooperation within an organization only benefit the competition: those other organizations who want to take your business away for themselves.
- Greater trust: Employee engagement helps create greater trust between employees and their managers by creating better communication. Sharing information demonstrates this trust and helps employees be less suspicious about what is happening in the organization at the higher levels of management.
- Happier employees: Happiness is hard to measure, but engaged employees will tell you they are generally happier about their roles in the organization and about their feelings toward their employers. Engaged employees spend less time complaining about the organization and its leaders and invest more of their emotional energy into doing a better job.
- Personal growth: Employee engagement can unlock the potential of employees. Bringing out their talents and abilities by providing opportunities at work to use these skills—in ways that may never have been possible in a more traditionally managed organizational culture—expands your people and your organization.
- Teamwork: Employee engagement encourages stronger teamwork by providing more opportunities for employees to work together to reach shared goals rather than only individual goals.
- Employee loyalty: Loyalty works both ways: You have to be loyal to get loyalty back. Engaged employees have a stronger sense of loyalty for their employer because they feel that the organization cares about them and respects their abilities as employees.
- Customer satisfaction: There is an old saying in business which advises “If you want your employees to treat your customers better, then treat your employees well.” This advice certainly applies to employee engagement. If you want your employees to focus on the needs of your customers, then you need to focus on the needs of your employees. Engaged employees will be far more concerned about meeting or exceeding the needs of your customers than if they were disgruntled or disengaged in their jobs. Engaged employees put forth that discretionary effort, which can make all the difference in the world when it comes to customer satisfaction, regardless of the employee’s position or role in the organization.
Accept the Leadership Engagement Challenge
There are many misconceptions about employee engagement, but the bottom line is: Employee engagement is all about leadership. Engagement not only makes the workplace a better and more fulfilling experience for employees, but for leaders as well. It is much more satisfying to lead employees who are committed and interested in their work, compared to employees who need help just getting their jobs done. For you, it could be easier to meet your objectives as a manager if those who work for you are more motivated to help reach those objectives. Imagine what it might be like to have everyone fully engaged in their jobs and to have fully contributing members of your team.
Creating a workplace based on employee engagement is not just something nice to do; it can produce remarkable results. Learning to become a more engaging leader can not only help you as a manager become a more effective leader today, but can also help you reach your future career goals.
- Think about all of the potential advantages discussed throughout this book that employee engagement can create for you in your leadership position. What would be your top five?
- What do you need to do to take advantage of employee engagement?