How to Foster Employee Engagement.
Disengaged and burned out employees cost companies every year billions of dollars and can highly affect the success of the business or even result in its failure.
Every employer knows that motivated and committed team members are valued nowadays more than ever.
Yet engagement does not equal employees’ satisfaction or their happiness. Someone can come to work every day with a big grin on their face, yet it does not have to mean they work productively on the behalf of the organisation.
Someone can be also satisfied with their job, but coming across another offer, will quit it as quickly as one-day notice takes. So engagement is definitely more than simply enthusiasm or satisfaction.
Engagement is an emotional commitment to our work.
If we are engaged, we feel that we are an integral part of the organisation and we believe that the company’s goals are our goals.
Understanding our vital role in the growth and development of company is in fact half of the success. When we are engaged, we are willing to make an extra effort without being asked. We are convinced that our job makes a difference and we can go this extra mile to better a company’s performance or reputation.
Engagement should be regarded as an investment by which we can increase our productivity, profitability and quality.
I would dare to say that this is a serious competitive advantage in the market nowadays, a market in which employees change their jobs the second a new opportunity arises.
How can we boost engagement?
By concentrating on developing our strengths. Each of us has a unique potential which goes far beyond our job description. Why not use it and make the best of it?
Good management of our team’s talents and knowledge can be a great means of building a strong successful business.
Employees who use their strengths every day, perform better and are much more absorbed in their work.
According to Gallup’s research we are facing an engagement crisis with only 13% employees all over the world admitting they are engaged in their work. Happily, I am lucky enough to be among these 13%. But if I weren’t, I would definitely start wondering whether everything is fine with me. My advice for disentangled ones? Think positively and have an open mind. And always be around people that take care about their own (and their company) goals.
By Urszula Stankiewicz, Social Media and Branding Girl at Bright Inventions
