Politics and Business

6 Ways To Improve Employee Engagement

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Having a workforce that enjoys working for you, and can say that they are happy when coming into work is very important – After all, the average worker spends 1,670.27 hours working each year.  When staff members are happy, you will find your business will progress for a number of reasons. Chances are, a motivated staff force will be more productive, your best team members will be less likely to leave to find another job and you will find your staff members positively reinforcing other members, making them work harder as they are happy. 

If you are unsure of whether your employees are happy at work, there are a number of ways you can find out. You could email around an anonymous survey, asking for their honest feedback, or you can simply look at your staff retention rate. If your staff retention rate is better or doesn’t match the UK average employee turnover rate of approximately 15% a year, then you may want to ask the question of why your employees are leaving. 

There are many ways in which you can help improve your employee’s happiness, from offering bonuses and more flexible working to helping train and develop employees and being transparent. It may be worth using employee engagement software to help track the improvements you want to make. Below are 6 ways to improve your employee’s happiness. 

Offer Performance Bonuses 

Different employees will be motivated by different things. For some, offering financial performance bonuses can really help motivate them within the workplace. The trick with offering bonuses is to make them achievable, otherwise, it can have an adverse effect and make employees feel unmotivated. You could set this bonus out as a quarterly bonus, half-year bonus or a yearly bonus depending on what suits your business best. If employees can see others receiving their bonus, they will feel more motivated and do a better job within your company. 

Tell Your Employees They Are Doing A Good Job

It sounds simple but this can be very rewarding when done correctly. As the manager of the company, many will look up to you and want to impress you. By simply recognising when an employee has done a good job, asking them into your office and praising them, can go a long way. Try not to overdo and do it too much otherwise it won’t be as powerful, but when done correctly it can really help motivate an employee. Plus, this has no cost to your business but can help improve how your business operates. 

Make The Office A Pleasant Place To Be 

Everybody knows Google’s HQ is an impressive building. When walking in you instantly feel success, you feel like they look after their staff and the atmosphere feels motivating. This then has the knock-on effect of staff members feeling happier, making them less likely to leave as they enjoy working in the office. Now think about your office, how warm does it feel when employees arrive? Do you yourself walk into your office and feel a sense of pride? If not it may be worth making some adjustments. You don’t have to spend a lot doing this, plants can add some colour, pictures on the wall give some character and a nice smell can go a long way. Make sure the equipment your staff use is up to standards and that they are comfortable when working. 

Flexible Working 

Flexible Working is something you may have heard more and more about since the pandemic? That is because the general public really appreciate it and it has a lot of benefits to your business. By offering it out you will find you may get a broader range of talent applying for jobs, it will help retain your current staff members and it can reduce absenteeism and sickness. Why not try flexible working out for a couple of months and see the effect it has on your business, for so many other companies, the results have been very positive. 

Let Them Know You Trust Them 

As with everything in life, trust is very important! The more trust you give employees, the more likely it is that they are willing to work harder for you to prove to you that your trust in them is justified. By giving your confidence in your team members, and allowing them to take on tasks that are important, shows you value them and can trust them to do a good job. When giving them a task, try not to micromanage them, but make yourself very approachable so that they can ask you questions should they need to. By not having a greater input, you may be surprised at what ideas or results come back to you. 

Learn What Motivates Each Employee 

As touched upon above, each employee is different. What motivates one person won’t necessarily motivate another. By taking your time to speak with each of your employees you can learn what does motivate them, and implement it within your business. Some employees may have kids and will benefit from finishing earlier to pick them up from school. Others may feel motivated knowing you care about their progression and that you send employer on training courses, whilst others it could simply be money. Everybody is different which is why you should try and speak to each employee on an independent level to find out what they personally care about. 

Overall there as so many things, you can be doing to help improve your employee engagement. In the short term, some ideas may cost more to the business, but in the long term, you will really benefit from a more motivated workforce. Instead of making drastic changes, why not try a couple of the ideas above and see how they work for you. If successfully implemented, you could then try making even more changes. 

What ideas do you have that may increase the motivation of a workforce? Have you tried any from the list above? Is there anything you would like to add to the points above? Let us know in the comment box below. 

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