How to Stay Consistent with Employee Engagement
Actively engaging with your employees has several benefits. Better company culture, satisfied employees, less employee turnover, better performance, and of course, pleased customers. Many leaders strive for these results, but end up falling short because they forget one thing. When trying to boost employee engagement you must be intentional. You must be very clear on what you’re aiming to achieve with employee engagement and be very consistent with your actions. In this post, you will learn 5 steps to create a solid plan to help you stay consistent with employee engagement and increase employee satisfaction.
Step 1: Identify what results you want and why.
You should be very specific in this step. More clarity about why you want to boost employee engagement, the be more strategic you’ll be with getting those results.
Example: The purpose of focusing on employee engagement is to (re)build our company culture and increase teamwork and collaboration. Doing so will reduce conflict, increase team productivity, and reduce the high employee turnover rates we’ve experienced over the past year.
Step 2: Observe and identify what’s stopping you from seeing the results currently.
This step should be done in two parts:
A: Observe the obstacles from your perspective as a leader.
B: Gather feedback from your team about what they believe the obstacles are.
It’s necessary to understand why your team doesn’t feel engaged currently so that you can address them in your planning efforts.
Example: A few employees have voiced that they don’t feel heard and that other members on the team are controlling. It’s important to me to ensure that all employee suggestions are fairly considered. However, I have noticed that some employees are fighting over assignments and it’s creating a hostile environment. This is one of the reasons why a few valuable employees have left the company this past year.
Step 3: Strategize how to get those results.
Your actions and means to see (positive) changes with employee connection must be intentional. In other words, don’t spend time on activities that won’t move you closer to addressing the issues identified and getting the end results that you want.
Example: There are misaligned responsibilities with my team that affects teamwork and collaboration. I’ll review all the roles/responsibilities of my team, the current workflow processes, get employee feedback, outline the changes needed, communicate the changes, etc.
Step 4: List & plan each intentional action to reach your employee engagement goals.
Randomly deciding to host a team building event or a team gathering won’t magically cause your employees to be more engaged at work. Take the time to create a plan for all of your engagement efforts.
Example: To reach the goal of building a culture of actively involved employees, I’ll be more intentional with my actions as a leader. I will intentionally plan/schedule regular one-on-one meetings with my team, schedule group activities, follow-up with my team members, identify their goals and keep them motivated, etc.
Plan your engagement efforts with over 50 activities & gestures + planner templates in this Employee Engagement Planning Packet!
Step 5: Keep your actions intentional and non-negotiable a priority.
Unless you’re consistent with your actions, you won’t see results. Make employee engagement a priority by scheduling your efforts.
Example: I will dedicate one day per week evaluating processes and following up with my team members. This will help me remain intentional and consistent with encouraging better teamwork. I’ll also schedule time to…
