Employee engagement is vital for the success of every organization or business. Improved staff engagement offers various benefits including greater creativity, increased motivation, and more focused business thinking. All these factors create a healthy environment where every person is inspired to work towards overall success and benefit of the entire team. Leadership communication is paramount here, if you want the employees to do better, you have to know how to engage them and these ten tricks and tips will help you.
- Survey
First things first, to build employee engagement you have to assess whether employees already feel somewhat engaged or not. This is where surveys step in! Handing out survey papers (or asking employees to complete them online) is a great way to get a brief insight into some points to address while building employee engagement. Ideally, the survey should consist of questions you find important, you can get a few ideas here.
- Don’t beat around the bush
Let’s say results of the survey showed that employees do not feel engaged. The best thing to do is to address this subject directly. Beating around the bush is unnecessary and leads nowhere. What you can do is to ask every employee individually for ideas that could make them feel more engaged. Getting straight to the point allows you to take actions as soon as possible.
- Celebrate personal wins and milestones
When someone on your team makes a personal progress such as hitting a monthly or quarterly goal, take the time to celebrate it. Announce the accomplishment and make it a win for the entire team. You can even go a step further and inspire others to work hard and reach their goals or milestones by explaining how their progress directly contributes to the business success. Remember, regardless of how small those personal wins may seem, they still mean a lot to that person and taking them to acknowledge that is a great way to build more engagement. Celebrate with a fun outing or with a Friday Happy Hour.
- Give your team “inside” information
A great way to keep everyone involved and engaged is sharing some inside information. Keep them updated about the direction of the company or organization, some concerns you may have, and the challenges that you and the leadership team are facing. In turn, employees will feel like they are, truly, considered as a valuable part of the company and they may also share some useful ideas that you can use. Plus, people engage more when they feel accepted and appreciated.
- Instead of “Who did this?” ask “What we can learn from this?”
Mistakes are bound to happen to both you and the employees. What matters here is how you handle them. Instead of yelling and arguing, use a different, more positive approach. That’s what leadership communication is all about! Take every mistake or failure as an opportunity to learn and avoid future mistakes. If you had the habit of asking “Who did this?” after someone messed up, reformulate that question into “What we can learn from this?” Allow employees to elaborate what they learned from that mistake and whether something can be done to prevent it. Make sure all employees answer the question, not just one individual. Employee engagement increases when people learn to find something positive in bad situations. This is what moves the company forward, getting through difficult times by learning and communicating.
- Make sure new employees get to know the entire team
The first day at a new job is tough for everyone. You’ve been there yourself. You don’t know other people and feel like a stranger. For quite some time, new hires feel insecure which prevents them from demonstrating their true potential. Use your leadership communication skills to make sure new employees get to know the whole team. You can do so by asking all employees in that department to say something about themselves and encouraging the newcomer to do the same. Or maybe you can organize a game night. That is a great way to improve communication between yourself and the team members. Plus, the new addition to the team will feel more comfortable.
- Send out Monday motivation messages
Sometimes you can communicate without words and Monday is a perfect opportunity for that. Since nobody likes Mondays, why don’t you start the new work week with a nice motivational message or quote? Fortunately, you can easily find these wise words online and email them to the employees. Little things mean a lot, and this isn’t the exception.
- Engagement through weekly meetings
Since you are a team leader the employees get to hear you talk….a lot. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with that. Communication is essential for every relationship in your life, including with team members at work. But, feel free to go one step further and ask a different person to lead these meetings with you every week.
- “Ban” emails for a day on a weekly basis
Technology allows us to communicate with others without having to talk to them personally. As a result, we don’t even try to work more on our communication skills. However, employee engagement depends on the interactions between team members, leadership, and so on. Therefore, ban emails for a day, each week. On that day, all employees who have some questions, should walk up to other team members and ask. The same applies if they want to ask you something and vice versa. The face-to-face interaction makes priceless employee engagement moments.
- Have problem-solving meetings
When it comes to business, regardless of the niche, there is no such thing as a smooth ride. Obstacles are lurking everywhere, problems happen. Luckily, every problem has its solution and everyone takes a different approach to problem-solving. You can increase employee engagement and solve some problems the company or organization is facing by setting up problem-solving meetings. Let all employees say how they would tackle some demanding situation, encourage brainstorming. Not only you’ll get plenty of ideas to combine and work things out, but you also get to engage your employees in a unique manner. Getting everyone working together and feeling like their ideas are valued is an amazing accomplishment for every leader.
Bottom line
Employee engagement doesn’t just happen; it’s like a plant that needs nourishment in order to grow. Creating a healthy, functional environment is the task that ever leader has to accomplish and although it may be difficult, it is also rewarding at the same time. Encouraging healthy communication raises productivity and engagement, and with a few simple tips and tricks, you’ll notice improvements quite fast.
Lucy Benton is a vivid marketing blogger and a goal oriented leader who enjoys sharing tips and stories, currently works at BestEssayTips as a chief editor. She studied Creative and Professional Writing at the Maharishi University of Management. If you’re interested in working with Lucy, you can find her on FaceBook.