7 Ways to Increase Employee Engagement

There are plenty of reasons employers should prioritize increasing employee engagement. How an employee relates to their work yields valuable insights about how invested they are in their work, how psychologically committed they are to their job, and how appreciated and encouraged they feel. Here are seven key moves to integrate into your company’s work culture if you’d like to begin building an atmosphere conducive to a higher level of employee engagement:

1. Create a positive work environment

Fostering a supportive work environment is integral to boosting company morale and developing an engaged workforce that is entrepreneurial, creative, and connected. By creating a culture of appreciation and support, your employees can build strong ties to one another and develop a sense of inclusion within your company. Employees are far more driven (and have better work relationships) when they are recognized for their contributions.

2. Offer advancement opportunities

Provide educational opportunities and hire from within. Establishing that there is room for upward mobility within your organization will give your employees extra incentive to perform to the best of their abilities, and providing educational opportunities will ensure that their talents are constantly growing. While you may fear that adding to your employees’ skillset and enhancing their professional value will qualify them to take a position elsewhere, a Gallup poll determined that ultimately, people don’t quit their job – they quit their boss. Bottom line: if you treat your employees well, you have nothing to fear.

3. Encourage employees to take on a leadership role

The degree to which your employees advance and progress in their jobs is a direct result of the opportunities you give them. Make an effort to clue your team in on new developments, give them opportunities to take on new challenges, and give employees space and respect they deserve – micromanaging has been found to hinder morale and productivity. Finally, consider implementing strong leadership programs, as many innovative and forward-thinking organizations attribute their success to these, and good onboarding and mentorship practices.

4. Help employees establish clear roles

In order to build a winning team, integrating your employees into their job and clearly communicating their core duties is key. Providing well-designed training programs and designating a clear set of goals will help them quickly adjust, build confidence, and eventually, excel in their position.

5. Get feedback

Create a culture of open communication. Start by acknowledging that your interests in the well-being of your team extend beyond their impact on your bottom line – you want to help your employees flourish just as much as you want your own company to get ahead. Check-in with your team once a month and conduct informal stay interviews to find out what things are and aren’t working for your employees, and whether they have any new ideas to try. Based on their feedback you may want to rethink your company’s practices and implement changes.

6. Encourage relationship-building

While some feel that the time spent at the water cooler is time wasted, studies show that workplace socializing actually increases employee productivity. Let employees work together, encourage informal chat, and organize after-hours team activities and events. According to the employee survey platform Officevibe, socializing with colleagues is the only thing proven to make you as happy as when you are not at work.

7. Offer fair pay

If you want to have a first-rate work environment, consider your company’s compensation philosophy. Are you offering competitive pay? While money isn’t the sole motivator for good workplace performance, good pay philosophies retain and motivate employees and attract top talent. Offering equity in the company, a good base salary, and incentive pay are all great components to consider incorporating into your business’s pay packages.

FingerCheck is one of the leading Time and Attendance/HR providers that provide applicant tracking, time and attendance solutions, and HR services with the goal of making workflow more manageable so employers can tend to what truly matters – their business. Working alongside small to mid-sized firms, FingerCheck delivers technical expertise to hundreds of organizations within many different industries and determines their workforce management needs and the corresponding solutions that will suit their teams best. As a result, FingerCheck is an authority on workforce development and constantly strives to achieve maximum impact in their partnerships and collaborations with their clients.

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