10 Things To Improve Employee Engagement In The Coming Year
During our busy professional lives we often take employee engagement for granted. Also, there is a common belief among senior executives that if they compensate their employees they should be sufficiently engaged. Wrong.
We are nine short days away from Christmas, and perhaps it’s time to take stock of your employees and reflect on how well you have engaged them using this simple checklist. Take a look at this 10-point checklist and think about how well you are doing against it.
- Have you communicated effectively this past year? Are you respectful in your interpersonal relationships, do you invite and encourage two-way exchange of information? Do you communicate consistently and with transparency? Do you discuss the challenges and seek their input and advice?
- Have you maximized the talent of your people? Have you leveraged the individual talents of your people in pursuit of the company’s goals? Have you told them that they matter and are contributing to the success of the company?
- Are you clear about where the company is headed and how fast you need to get there? Have you provided clarity of purpose? Does everybody know who was responsible for what, how decisions are made, and their role in the big picture?
- Are you acknowledging, recognizing, and rewarding the actions and people who matter and are making a difference? Do you give credit to those who deserve it as a result of their contributions and behavior in pursuit of your company’s goals?
- Appreciation. Have you said thank you to the people who are helping you succeed this past year? Do they know that you truly appreciate their levels of engagement and their contributions to the success of the company?
- Are you a passionate organization? Are you hiring people with passion and who care about their jobs and the industry? What are you doing to raise the level of passion and enthusiasm and excitement among your employees? Are you helping them grow and learn? Are you helping them professionally?
- Purpose and direction. Does your organization have a clear and compelling direction that matters and resonates with your people? Have you gone out of your way to build abundant mentality and consensus with your peers?
- Are you having productive conversations? Do you truly seek out other people’s opinions and advice and are you open-minded about the outcome before complex decisions are made? Do you value other people’s opinions?
- Do you have courage? Courage to do the right thing for your people, clients and vendors? Do have courage to think with creativity and innovation? Do you ask the tough questions that people are often afraid to ask? More importantly, are you making courageous decisions?
- Do you encourage a fun and welcoming work environment? Do you go out of your way to make people feel happy at work? How often do you smile? How do you make your work environment stress free and fun? Is fun as important as all other business processes?
In the coming year, try to incorporate these ideas into your daily activity and I will guarantee that your engagement, personally and organizationally, will improve substantially.
Also, let me take this time to wish you, our clients and friends, a very happy holiday season and new year. We appreciate your support, your business and positive words of encouragement as we enter 2016 in our 17th year business. May you be blessed with happiness, health and prosperity and surrounded by friends and family.