Why are your employees not working?
If you have ever managed people or departments, then you know a lot of time and money goes into the recruiting and training of new people. An odd thing happens after someone is hired and starts working; they become engrossed in the culture of the organization and this culture sets the tone for the new hire. With nearly 70 percent of the workforce not engaged at work, it is imperative companies look at ways they can get their people working.
Recruiting & On-boarding
Whether or not you believe it, employee engagement starts on day one or sometimes before the first day. Your recruitment strategy or even your background screening process sets the tone for how things are done at your company. In this day and age, if you still have candidates apply using a paper application then either you are a small company or you are a non-progressive company and some people will pick up on that. This could mean your other systems are older or out of date. For some, this is not a big deal and some may even welcome it; however, for others, they will be turned off by this and may not be committed to giving 100 percent effort in their job. When you think about the candidate experience, the process to apply should be easy and your website should give candidates all the information about your organization, so they want to work for you and be engaged.
Have you ever began a new job only to get there and realize within the first week that you made a mistake? The first day or week for some, can be the deal-breaker when it comes to engagement. Imagine it is your first day and you are really excited, but when you arrive at work, you don’t have a computer to work on or your trainer doesn’t want to train you or there is no one to train you and you have to figure it out on your own. These things start to set in your mind that maybe the company doesn’t care about employees and after a while you stop caring about the company. First days should be exciting and new people want to feel welcomed and feel like they belong.
Goals and Tasks
As simple as it seems, giving your employees goals is a great way to get and keep your employees engaged. When you have new employees, they should have an understanding of what is expected of them. At some companies, this understanding happens when the first performance review is completed. If your employees receive their goals within the first week of employment, not only will they know what is truly expected of them, but they can be engaged because they will know what to do to be a productive employee.
As a supervisor, you should plan to have goals ready to go when new employees start. You can work through what each goal means and how it affects the department and the organization. Once employees have their goals, they will need to understand the tasks necessary to accomplish the goals. Tasks are the action part of any goal; this is how it gets done. Many people will start their day by creating a list of things to do; these are the tasks they need to complete in order to drive their goals.
Getting employees involved
Most people want to feel they are a part of something, even if it is something at work. Another way to get your employees engaged is to allow them to be on special teams or committees. By allowing your employees the freedom to do something different than their day-to-day job, it will make them feel part of the bigger team, the company. Let your team members take turns with special assignments or leading different groups. You will find team members will be looking for opportunities to be involved. This involvement will foster engagement and will set a culture of helping out and being involved.
Making employees feel appreciated
Everyone wants to feel appreciated and cared about. Making employees feel appreciated can be as simple as telling someone they did a great job or that you are happy they are at work. It doesn’t have to be a big formal occasion. Recognizing the little things, will show you care and you are paying attention to what they are doing. If employees feel like you care and you appreciate them, they will be more productive and you will have less turnover.
Recognizing your employees' milestones is important as well. Employees spend more time at work than they do anywhere else. When an employee hits that one- or five-year mark, make sure to recognize this accomplishment. This is a great opportunity to get the CEO involved as well, so the employee knows that everyone appreciates them. These steps go a long way to encourage employees to work hard for many years to come.
Check-ins
Check-ins have become a really popular thing to do within the last few years. Even though it makes sense to do this, some supervisors still struggle to check on their staff. Check-ins don’t have to be about the job or even goals; check-ins can truly be to check on how a person is doing.
Check-ins can be a great time to review an employee’s goals and how they are progressing. Offering assistance with any issue is encouraging. Check-ins can be scheduled or random, as long as they happen. It is much easier to talk about the annual performance appraisal at the end of the year, if you have regularly performed weekly check-ins. If employees know these meetings are going to happen and their performance will be the focus, they will be more apt to have something to show you.
There is no magic pill to solve the engagement problem; every employee is different and is motivated differently. The key is to find something that works for you and your team. Focus on the little things that work and you will make your team more engaged and productive.