The emotional commitment an employee has toward a company and its main goals is called employee engagement—employees being more focused on helping the company thrive. With today’s war for talent and an entire new generation of digital natives moving into the workplace, employee engagement is a serious concern on the corporate agenda of every major company.
Engaged employees initiate better business results. Research shows that organizations with engaged workers can easily reach higher profit margins of up to 6%. Here are four simple ways business leaders can harness their company’s brand to further their employee engagement goals.
1. ALIGN COMPANY GOALS AND INSTILL CONFIDENCE IN THE LEADERS: Aligning company goals with employees and being transparent about yearly plans is a mainstay of every leadership role. After economic uncertainty and layoffs, employees need to feel they can trust the people leading their company. They need to have leaders they can look up to, and aspire to emulate. Creating a culture of transparency and requiring an ongoing dialogue between management and staff costs nothing, but it can increase employee engagement and happiness exponentially.
2 . INSPIRE EMPLOYEES THROUGH PURPOSE : A ccording to a recent survey, employees feel that the company should be a great place to contribute to their field. Employees ultimately want to feel they are doing tasks to help move entire industries forward. Employees who feel a personal connection to their work are more engaged. To do this, it is imperative to offer employees the appropriate motivation, time, and tools to understand how their work and your organization are both contributing to the big picture. You can try implementing an 80-20 rule like Google, offering employees time away from the office to be inspired.
3. INFUSE BRAND IN TO YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY : As boomers retire and increasing numbers of digital natives enter the workforce, the types of internal communications that effectively engage employees are shifting. More dynamic digital experiences will have a higher impact on employee engagement. These experiences facilitate a real-time, two-way conversation–whether internally between employees or with customers.
4. CROWDSOURCE INNOVATION FROM WITHIN : Innovation is key to a successful company, but creating a culture that values and fosters innovative thought can be a challenge. Enabling a culture that promotes suggestions from employees can give employers insights they would not get elsewhere. The bottom line is that an open door policy just won’t cut it anymore--you need to find a way to leverage your most prized assets.
Most of the times our open office space leads to casual conversations about everyday challenges, and often the solution comes from a team member who is not directly involved. Therefore it is important to have employees talk/discuss from different departments to be able to problem-solve together.
By connecting two of your most valuable assets–your brand and your people–you can make meaningful progress toward your employee engagement goals. With these guidelines, you’ll not only have a more engaged workforce, you can also boost recruitment, enhance internal and customer communications, foster innovation, and deliver a better customer experience.
Engaged employees initiate better business results. Research shows that organizations with engaged workers can easily reach higher profit margins of up to 6%. Here are four simple ways business leaders can harness their company’s brand to further their employee engagement goals.
1. ALIGN COMPANY GOALS AND INSTILL CONFIDENCE IN THE LEADERS: Aligning company goals with employees and being transparent about yearly plans is a mainstay of every leadership role. After economic uncertainty and layoffs, employees need to feel they can trust the people leading their company. They need to have leaders they can look up to, and aspire to emulate. Creating a culture of transparency and requiring an ongoing dialogue between management and staff costs nothing, but it can increase employee engagement and happiness exponentially.
2 . INSPIRE EMPLOYEES THROUGH PURPOSE : A ccording to a recent survey, employees feel that the company should be a great place to contribute to their field. Employees ultimately want to feel they are doing tasks to help move entire industries forward. Employees who feel a personal connection to their work are more engaged. To do this, it is imperative to offer employees the appropriate motivation, time, and tools to understand how their work and your organization are both contributing to the big picture. You can try implementing an 80-20 rule like Google, offering employees time away from the office to be inspired.
3. INFUSE BRAND IN TO YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY : As boomers retire and increasing numbers of digital natives enter the workforce, the types of internal communications that effectively engage employees are shifting. More dynamic digital experiences will have a higher impact on employee engagement. These experiences facilitate a real-time, two-way conversation–whether internally between employees or with customers.
4. CROWDSOURCE INNOVATION FROM WITHIN : Innovation is key to a successful company, but creating a culture that values and fosters innovative thought can be a challenge. Enabling a culture that promotes suggestions from employees can give employers insights they would not get elsewhere. The bottom line is that an open door policy just won’t cut it anymore--you need to find a way to leverage your most prized assets.
Most of the times our open office space leads to casual conversations about everyday challenges, and often the solution comes from a team member who is not directly involved. Therefore it is important to have employees talk/discuss from different departments to be able to problem-solve together.
By connecting two of your most valuable assets–your brand and your people–you can make meaningful progress toward your employee engagement goals. With these guidelines, you’ll not only have a more engaged workforce, you can also boost recruitment, enhance internal and customer communications, foster innovation, and deliver a better customer experience.