Philadelphia, PA - To move the needle on employee engagement, corporations must act accordingly. No one-size-fits-all approach is available. Your managers are the ones capable enough to understand and improve your commitment and work engagement.
They're on the front lines every day with employees, so they know all the ins and outs of how to manage their employees’ engagement. Therefore, in this article, we'll be looking at some of the best ideas that managers can imply for better employee engagement.
1. Create an Engaging Work-Life Experience
Employees begin from day one to create perceptions of your workplace. It is up to managers – not only HR – to start the engagement of new employees.
Managers should even:
- Make the new employees feel very welcome
- Encourage the employees to open up
- Communicate both in a friendly and professional manner
- Introduce the new recruits to other subordinates.
As a manager, you have a lot of responsibilities rather than just assigning employees with their tasks or just taking the reports. Try creating a fun work environment for your employees.
For example, organize a happy hour for your employees where they can relax and open up with other employees. Even try coming up with solutions for those employees who’ll be working remotely. Moreover, these positive first impressions will take you a long way in your journey as a manager.
2. Make the Work Environment Interesting
The everyday working hours of 9-to-5 can make your employees worn out, so to prevent this from happening try spicing up the working environment with varieties of opportunities.
You can even schedule some walking sessions to help your employees get some fresh air and also stay more energized. You should also give flexibility to your employees who are working both from the office or home.
Try having the next one-on-one meeting in a restaurant or even at a coffee shop. These slight pepperings can indeed make the working environment more enjoyable.
3. Celebrate with Your Employees Even Outside Work
Your employees are the backbone of your departments, so they play a huge role in keeping your department strong. So, try celebrating any accomplishments outside of work as well.
For instance, if any of your employees are having a birthday try to take a small gift or even cupcakes to show your affection for them.
In all cases, your employees deserve to get recognized for their hard work and dedication. So, these small celebrations and gestures of gratitude can boost the morale of your employees and encourage them to be more committed and productive.
4. Know Their Strengths
You can’t always guide your employees in each and every case. Sometimes, you need to let them figure things out by themselves.
By this, you are encouraging them to make their own decisions and even engage with other employees to come up with a better solution.
In this way, all the employees will be very engaging and together they can come up with better, productive, and efficient ideas.
5. Be a Leader, Not a Boss
Cut out with the boss mentality and attitude. Your employees don’t want to get bossed around, instead, they want to be coached, nurtured, and advised.
In research, it has been found that manager coaching can have a drastic result on employee performance and engagement. It shows that around 85% of disengaged employees stated that they weren’t properly coached by their manager, therefore they couldn’t be as engaging as they should be. (Source)
So, as a manager, you should always have that leadership attitude of coaching and advising your employees, not bossing around or mistreating them.
6. Take Your Employees’ Advice as Well
Each of the employees has its own unique strengths that can support and back up the manager. So, when you go to your team and ask for their feedback or help, you are actually acknowledging their working strengths and even showing your appreciation.
You can even ask them to proofread your representations or even pick out the areas where expenses can be cut down. Take feedback on what they think about your new bonding ideas or even ask for advice on how you can tackle the next strategic planning meeting.
The moment you start consulting with your employees and show them respect for their opinions, they will start building a positive mindset about you and will try their best to deliver the best for you and your department.
7. Make Sure Not to Overload Your Employees With Work
Your employees too have a family to look after. So, plan the work schedules in such a way that your employees can get more time to spend with their friends and family.
When you start making efforts for your employees, you should also make sure how they feel about certain things, show them that you value their efforts, and even help them not to burnout due to excessive workloads
Bottom Line
Create spaces where your employees are encouraged to interact and take short breaks. A lunchroom, billiards table, or even relaxing couches all of these can be an excellent location for a quick recharge.
Moreover, this will also encourage employees to open up and have quick and effective chats with other team members or departments, thus will even improve their corporate engagements.
