A motivated workforce is a satisfied workforce. In their most recent The State of the American Workplace report, Gallup examined 12 actionable elements within the workplace that can be shown to correlate with improved performance. Employee engagement levels were highest among organizations that possessed the following four characteristics:
1. Leadership and strategic vision: Even though many organizations acknowledge the crucial impact that employee engagement has on profitability and growth, many leaders still struggle to convey a clear vision linking engagement with the company’s mission and growth strategy… The most effective leaders recognize that there is an emotional component to every action they take, which influences their daily business interactions.
TIP: Initiate a strategic, top-down method to engage leadership teams, then propagate engagement throughout the hierarchy of managers to the frontline employees.
2. Accountability coupled with performance: Organizations with high levels of engagement ensure that managers are held accountable—not only for the engagement of their teams but also for its correlation with their team’s overall performance.
TIP: Integrate engagement into managers’ balanced scorecards, and utilize it as a criterion for performance assessments.
3. Communication and knowledge sharing: Leaders in the most successful organizations adopt a strategic viewpoint on aligning their communication efforts regarding employee engagement. They consistently find ways to illustrate the impact of engagement year-round and share engagement tools and best practices throughout the organization.
TIP: Seize every chance, interaction, and available communication medium to emphasize and highlight the organization’s dedication to employee engagement. Aim to fully embed employee engagement into the organization’s vocabulary.
4. Opportunities for development and continuous learning: The highest-performing organizations begin engaging employees right from their first day. These companies offer well-structured and extensive development programs for leaders and managers, going a step further by fully incorporating employee engagement into these initiatives.
TIP: Evaluate your leadership and personal development initiatives to identify ways to seamlessly integrate employee engagement into your ongoing programs.
Well-being and happiness are closely connected… so enhance your company’s health, and consequently, its happiness.
