20 Things Employees Can Do To Improve Engagement

Employee Engagement Requires Everyone’s Commitment
If you’re serious about increasing employee engagement at your organization, you have to understand that it will require full commitment and effort across the company.  You will need “everyone on the ball” to succeed.  You should know the top 20 things employees can do to improve engagement.

A Holistic Approach
Too many organizations try to assign the responsibility for engaging employees to Human Resources, a senior executive, a team of frontline managers, or the employees themselves. The problem is that not one of these can be responsible for employee engagement – all of them must be an integral part of the engagement equation.

The goal of employee engagement needs to be considered in light of all the interconnections and conditions necessary for advocacy, discretionary effort, and loyalty to grow and thrive.  Success requires a holistic approach.

Three Contributing Roles
Engagement is built with the commitment and cooperation of the organization, leaders and employees.  To achieve a healthy organizational culture, it takes all three roles working in sync.

• The Organization
  helps secure the culture of engagement with policies and programs that underpin an engaged workforce
• The Leaders
  model and coach the behaviors that support engagement
• The Employees
  take employee engagement action steps toward fulfillment of the goal

The Role of Employees is Mistakenly Undervalued
With all that has been written about what the organization and the leaders need to do to boost employee engagement, we think it’s time to expect employees to carry more of the weight.  We know that the process of performance management, for example, is far more effective when the employees are active participants in helping create the performance standards and then fully agreeing to and buying into them.

The same is true of the engagement process.  The more employees feel ownership of the process, the more they will proactively participate in it.

Twenty Things Employees Can Do to Improve Engagement
Employees have a critical part to play in the process as they begin to take ownership of and responsibility for achieving the goal.  Here are some of the paths you as an employee can take to raise your level of engagement:

1. Look for new projects or stretch assignments that use skills sets or teams that are new and different
2. Be clear about career goals and aspirations
3. Seek out the information and resources required to produce high quality work
4. Understand the company’s future plans for success and how you fit in
5. Reflect a positive attitude about work – even during tough times
6. Help co-workers when they have a heavy workload
7. Treat those around you with dignity and respect
8. Maintain a healthy work/life balance
9. Ensure goals, roles, and accountabilities are clear to everyone around you
10. Recommend your company as a great place to work
11. Play to your strengths
12. Always follow up on action plans
13. Carve out time to learn and grow
14. Do not let conflict fester
15. Ask for and give frequent and constructive feedback
16. Look for ways to improve products, processes, and services
17. Think about the value of the work you do
18. Explain the reasons behind the decisions you make
19. Go the extra mile whenever you can
20. Acknowledge a job well done

The Bottom Line
Employee engagement is best achieved when the organization’s entire ecosystem is involved.  Make sure your engagement initiative involves everyone – so everyone is on the same “ball.”

To learn more things employees can do to improve engagement, download The Top Employee Engagement Mistakes: Are You Aimlessly Engaging Your Employees?