Employee engagement directly relates to the emotional commitment your employees have to your company and your business’s goals. This level of engagement often correlates to employee effectiveness and dedication.
Our team at Cloverleaf can help you learn more about employee engagement and how it benefits your company. We believe that no one should dread coming to work. Want to try Cloverleaf with your team? Start using Cloverleaf with your team free for 14 days.
DEFINING EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
What is employee engagement? Some business owners believe this term refers to how happy or satisfied their employees feel. In fact, employee engagement deals more with the emotional commitment employees feel for their employers.
Engaged employees often express higher levels of happiness and job satisfaction. These employees develop a commitment to the goals and values of their organization. They focus on doing their best each day, with the goal of increasing company success.
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THE FOUNDATION OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
So, how do businesses develop an engaged employee? Employee engagement initiatives often focus on increasing two-way:
Communication
Trust
Commitment
Integrity
Employees feel more engaged when they understand their role in your organization, their duties, and the business’s objectives. You can increase employee engagement in your company by providing information about the purposes and objectives of your company.
Engaged employees feel they have the ability to express their ideas about company decisions. Make sure that you cultivate a company culture that encourages employees to:
Give and accept constructive feedback
Develop new skills
Receive recognition for their achievements
Taking these steps helps employees feel like they’re truly members of your team, which can inspire employees and boost organizational performance. Employees who feel engaged funnel their increased energy into serving your company.
Note that engagement requires employees to understand your company’s goals and desired outcomes. Make sure that you provide this information in a clear and understandable way.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ENGAGEMENT AND SATISFACTION
How does employee engagement differ from employee satisfaction? Employee satisfaction deals specifically with how content employees feel about their job. Employers can measure employee satisfaction based on behavioral, affective, and cognitive components.
Engaged employees often turn out to be satisfied employees, as individuals who feel they have an emotional connection to their work report a higher degree of satisfaction on employee surveys.
Therefore, employee happiness and satisfaction often coincide with a company’s engagement scores.
EXPLORING THE IMPORTANCE OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
Developing an engaged workforce offers your company several important benefits. HR professionals recommend that you take steps to keep your employees engaged to improve:
Employee Performance
Engaged employees demonstrate a greater willingness to give their all during the workday. Engaged workers often proactively take steps to go above and beyond, which leads to increased productivity.
Retention Rates
Do you want to facilitate higher employee retention rates for your company? Disengaged employees are more likely to quit. When you engage employees, they:
Take fewer sick days
Experience fewer accidents
File fewer grievances
Develop a workplace culture that values employee engagement to take advantage of these benefits.
Customer Satisfaction
Engaged employees focus more on ensuring business success for your company. They put more effort into performing their jobs to the best of their abilities, which means they provide your customers with better care and service.
Customer loyalty rates often increase in proportion to employee engagement. Keep these factors in mind as you consider ways to improve the employee experience for individuals working for your company.
DEVELOPING MEASUREMENT PROCESSES FOR EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
Employee engagement levels impact your business outcomes and the success of your company. Many companies, therefore, want to measure the amount of engagement experienced by their employees. Your company can implement measurement processes such as:
Pulse surveys
1-on-1s
Exit interviews
Pulse surveys (or employee engagement surveys) allow you to quickly assess how employees feel about work. This kind of engagement survey usually only takes a few moments and should not contain more than ten questions to gather employee feedback.
1-on-1s allow you to speak directly with employees. Examples of these meetings include performance reviews as well as regularly scheduled talks throughout the year. During these meetings, you may discuss career development options and have the worker complete an employee engagement survey.
Perform exit interviews with all employees who decide to leave your company. These interviews allow you to determine what led to their decision to leave.
Finally, consider employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) assessments. These engagement surveys ask employees how much they enjoy work and how likely they’d be to recommend your company to someone else.
Use your survey results to assess the overall state of engagement throughout your company. You can even set up an employee engagement platform to make this process easier for members of your HR team.
SOURCES OF ENGAGEMENT
How can you build employee engagement in your company, improving business outcomes and the financial health of your company? Each component of your company can contribute to increased levels of engagement.
Managers
Senior leaders in your company play a pivotal role in generating engagement. Managers who keep the lines of communication open help employees feel like their voices matter. Managers need to be a coach for their employees by helping them set goals and expectations.
Increase Your Engagement – Cloverleaf helps employees bring their whole selves to work.
Maximize Talent – Uncover hidden employee strengths and potential.
Build Trust – Help employees build empathy and trust.
Teams
Cloverleaf helps teams to love working together through personalized insights about each team member which helps employees better understand one another, communicate better, and improve their relationship with the entire team. Employees who work in teams feel a greater sense of belonging. One satisfied employee often encourages a sense of well-being and devotion in other workers.
Interest Groups
Business interest groups represent the desires of multiple businesses in an industry. Allowing employees to work with these groups can boost engagement metrics.
Company-Wide
Developing a culture that values employee contributions helps generate higher levels of employee engagement.
EXAMPLES OF GOOD EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
Companies with good levels of employee engagement make decisions based on the results of survey data. They focus on performance management and treating each employee as a valued member of their team.
Southwest Airlines represents an example of a company that focuses on employee engagement. The company allows a lot of employee autonomy, even letting employees design their own uniforms. As a result, employees realize that their voice is heard and the company values their point of view because they listen and take action.
STEPS TO DEVELOP ENGAGED EMPLOYEES
A satisfied employee does far more from your business than an employee who feels disconnected from the values and goals of the company. Encourage engagement by:
Providing information about expectations for new hires during the onboarding process
Offering extensive training opportunities
Setting up safe channels for employee feedback
Giving employees specific congratulations
Promoting a healthy work-life balance
If you complete employee engagement assessments, make sure that you implement the survey results to demonstrate how much you value employee engagement.
IMPLEMENT AN EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY
Want the benefits that come with healthy engagement from your employees? You can set up a strategy to encourage employee engagement by following the guidance in this article and considering employee engagement software.
Employee engagement software provides you with a toolset to measure employee engagement levels. Software systems allow you to set up assessments and surveys for employees to take on a regular basis.
The software records the results of these assessments, providing you with easy-to-understand data about the state of engagement in your company. Keeping your finger on the pulse of employee emotions helps you make adjustments to the policy as needed, keeping engagement levels high.
Our team at Cloverleaf equips you with tools you can use to set up a strategy to boost engagement levels for employees throughout your company. Our tool sets provide you with several assessments you can use.
We also provide personalized insights about your business. We offer services for teams, coaches, and enterprises, allowing you to select the tools that do the most for your company. Our team even provides training for onboarding, enabling you to start connecting with your new employees and engaging them from the start.
PEOPLE ALSO ASK:
What Does Employee Engagement Mean?
Engagement deals with how dedicated your employees are to the success and mission of your business.
What Are Examples of Employee Engagement?
Your employees demonstrate that their engagement with your company when they:
Recommend your business as a place of employment to their friends
Go above and beyond to serve your customers
These actions only reflect examples of engaged behavior that you may see in your employees.
What Is Employee Engagement, and Why Is It Important?
Engagement from your employees reflects employee willingness to put your business first. This form of engagement is vital because it has a direct impact on employee satisfaction and happiness. It also helps improve customer satisfaction, as engaged workers often take extra steps to please your customers.
Why Is Employee Engagement So Important?
Healthy levels of employee engagement help your business grow and thrive.
Learn more about your work team and how to engage each teammate with Cloverleaf.
