Why You Need to Improve Staff Engagement in Your Organisation

There’s more to building the perfect team than advertising for the right employees and recruiting the right talent. While it’s essential to attract great people to your company, you also need to have a plan in place to retain those team members when they begin their journey with your business.  

As productivity and retention plans become increasingly important for organisations who want to build on their competitive edge, “engagement” has become something of a buzzword for every industry. After all, corporations with engaged employees perform 200% better than those who struggle with staff satisfaction.  

The problem is, creating a robust engagement strategy isn’t always as simple as it seems.  

Why is Engagement So Important? 

If your people are turning up to work each day as they’re supposed to, and getting the job done, then you might wonder why engagement is necessary in the first place. The answer is that there’s a huge difference between someone who just wants a regular salary and a high-performing team.  

Engaged staff go above and beyond to voluntarily invest more time, creativity, and effort into contributing to your business goals. They feel pride in their role and generally, bring more energy and enthusiasm to the projects they’re involved with.  

When engagement is a priority for your company, you’ll find that everyone is more committed, motivated, and loyal. This leads to better results for both the end-user and the brand too!  

So, how do you enhance engagement?  

1. Start with Inspiring Leadership

Passionate and motivated leadership is crucial for satisfied hires. If the minds responsible for leading your people show a genuine interest in their followers and invest plenty of time into understanding their aspirations and needs, you’ll be more likely to create a plan of action that serves everyone.  

Encourage supervisors and managers to act in the same way you expect lower-level team members to act, and make sure that you show an interest in employee goals, as well as the over-arching ambitions of the business. For instance, you can implement a development programme every time you onboard new talent.  

2. Hire the Right People to Begin With

When you’re working with an executive recruitment agency, or posting descriptions on specialist job boards, it’s easy to get caught up in searching for the candidate with the most impressive history, or the most extensive collection of relevant skills. However, while qualifications and education are essential to any role, it’s worth remembering that “attitude” counts too.  

A history working for one of the best tech companies in the country doesn’t necessarily guarantee that an applicant will be a technology innovator for your business. If people don’t join your organisation with a sense of passion and dedication, then it’s hard to create these traits from scratch. On the other hand, extra skills can always be taught.  

Hiring motivated people can also make your employer brand more appealing to top talent too – as experts often want to work with other passionate, and happy individuals.  

3. Offer Plenty of Opportunities for Growth

If you’re hoping to attract millennials to your organisation, or you want to convince existing staff members that you’re invested in their development, one of the best things you can do is provide constant chances for growth in the form of training, courses, and lessons.  

A great way to get started here is to talk to people about their plans and what they want to accomplish as part of your team. When you’re bringing a new hire into the workforce, speak to them about where they hope to be in the next few years, and look for ways that you can support them.  

Professionals in today’s world aren’t just looking for another job; they’re searching for a career that supports their ideal vision of whom they want to become. If you give your employees a direct path to their targets, then they won’t need to look for opportunities elsewhere.  

4. Reward and Recognise Recruits

Just as the people in your workforce want to know that there’s a future for them with your business, they also want to feel as though their hard work is getting the attention it deserves. Your Staff are more motivated to give their best when they know that their efforts are going to be rewarded. Even simply thanking your professionals for their input can be enough to encourage them towards better performance.  

Taking the time to celebrate accomplishments and recognise employees in a way that feels unique and meaningful to them keeps everyone engaged while improving your employer brand reputation at the same time. This can mean that you’re more likely to attract talent in the future.  

5. Ask for Feedback

Finally, if you’re not sure how you can continue to improve engagement in your company, then the easiest way to generate new ideas, is to speak to your staff and ask them for feedback. No-one can offer a better insight into what your organisation needs to improve, and these regular reviews can ensure that you don’t lose fantastic employees because of problems that would have been easily fixed.