The Secrets to Employee Engagement

Employee engagement is a goal that most corporations spend a lot of time and effort to meet. It is not easy, since in America, alone, only 30% on average of employees are considered to be engaged.

The other 70% fall either in the middle, where they are just striding along, or they are in the category of being actively disengaged. More employees fall in the middle, than actively disengaged, but they are still a problem. Successful companies employ many different strategies to keep their employees engaged. The first order of business is to identify just how many disengaged employees you have. This is easily implemented with a staff satisfaction survey.

This survey includes targeted questions on topics ranging from opinions on policies, to how happy the employee is with his or her job. Open-ended questions are an excellent tool to see exactly how employees feel. Carefully measure management in these surveys. Publicizing the results of the survey will often yield great results. There, the managers can let the employees know that they care and ask for suggestions to improve.

This accomplishes two things:  it tells your employees that you are concerned about them, and it gets them involved in finding a solution as a team. Employee engagement does not really have a secret formula. You have to make it a priority. A common excuse for not doing so is that of finances, but employing a survey and maybe a meeting or two will not add much in additional costs. Plus, with most of your employees engaged, studies show that sales and profits tend to trend upward.