5 Smart Employee Engagement Actions to Make Now

Employee Engagement Actions
Wherever you are on the employee engagement rating scale, you should know the critical few employee engagement actions that will move the needle and keep your employee engagement levels where you want them to be as part of your overall talent management strategy.  Especially if you have worked hard to hire and onboard the best employees, you must create the conditions get the most from your employees in a way that makes sense for them, your strategy, and your organizational culture.

5 Smart Employee Engagement Actions to Make Now
Done right, employee engagement is about engaging employees so they want to perform at their peak and stay with the organization for the long haul.  Based upon organizational culture assessment data, here are five critical employee engagement strategies that can help you retain your top talent:

1. Promote an Open, Honest Corporate Culture
   Silos and secrets foster distrust and rumors. And the opposite is true. When knowledge is shared and managers encourage open communication, productivity and collaboration increase. Employees should feel free to share their ideas and concerns.

   And managers should provide frequent forums for honest dialogue, helpful feedback and effective decision making.

2. Let Employees Know that You Care
   Show employees that you truly value them and their contributions. Get to know your team members on an individual basis — their strengths, their motivators, their interests, and their ambitions. As you demonstrate genuine interest in their well being, they will repay you with their commitment to doing their best.

   This is just basic psychology.

3. Be Clear About Behavioral and Performance Expectations
   You can’t expect employees to deliver top-notch performance if they don’t understand clearly how you measure success. Be specific about what you require with each task you assign. The better your employees understand how you define success, the better they can satisfy you.
4. Recognize Work Well Done
   We all appreciate recognition for accomplishment. When an employee turns in a superior work product, acknowledge them with specific, and perhaps, public thanks. If discretionary effort and excellent work are regularly ignored, employees feel undervalued and unappreciated. This is fertile ground for employees to look elsewhere for a company that will appreciate their contribution.
5. Foster an Environment of Continuous Learning
   Engaged employees can see a clear path ahead. Dead end jobs are discouraging. See that you have ongoing career development conversations with your team.

   Find out where they want to grow and provide opportunities for helping them toward their goals. When they can focus their time and effort on projects they enjoy, they will repay you with dedication and enthusiasm for what they do.

The Bottom Line
These five pillars of employee engagement will keep your rating of employee satisfaction high. And besides having a happier workforce, here’s your incentive—studies show that engaged workers are over 40% more productive and effective than their disengaged counterparts. 

To learn more smart research-backed employee engagement actions to take, download our Employee Engagement and Retention Toolkit now