4 Employee Engagement goals worth working towards

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Like most successful employers, you may have recognised the value of employee engagement. It is absolutely fundamental for performance, productivity and workplace culture, and it helps to avoid a host of people-related issues like absenteeism and high staff turnover. 

Hay Group concluded that engaged employees bring in 43% more revenue than disengaged ones and in a Gallup poll it was found that organizations with great staff engagement are, on average, 18% more productive than their less-engaged competitors. An IES/Work Foundation report, People and the Bottom Line found ‘that if organisations increased investment in a range of good workplace practices which relate to engagement by just 10%, they would increase profits by £1,500 per employee per year.’

There really are no downsides to improving employee engagement – there are only great rewards to reap. This is why almost all (smart) employers are interested in employee engagement and are setting goals to improve it within their workplaces. 

Since we at Inpulse are pretty clued up on employee engagement – (we have 20 years of experience under our belt!), we have curated a list of employee engagement goals you should prioritise and strive to achieve in order to improve engagement in the most effective way.

Focus on employee emotion 

Employee emotion is the foundation of employee engagement and it’s why our Inpulse surveys measure emotion. Science tells us that emotion drives behaviour. Which means that if an employee feels negative about their work it’s going to show in their level of performance, motivation, how they communicate with their colleagues, their commitment to the organisation, etc. An employee who approaches work in this way is disengaged and highly unlikely to become engaged, unless their negative feelings become positive – but this can only be achieved once management is aware of how they feel and why and makes the necessary changes.

Create an ongoing communication channel between management and the workforce

Most organisations struggle to improve employee engagement and maintain it, because they approach engagement as a tick-box exercise. To find success in employee engagement the absolute key is to establish an ongoing communication channel between management and the workforce. In our opinion, the most effective tool for improving engagement is regular pulse surveys because it gives employees an anonymous voice to express how they feel, what they need and their expectations, while providing management with invaluable data that can help managers make strategic decisions.

Ensure employee feedback has a place in the decision-making process

Once you’ve gathered feedback from employees through the pulse survey, it’s important that this data is put to good use. The only way to really improve and maintain employee engagement is if employee feedback has a place in the decision-making process. It’s really the whole point of conducting surveys in the first place! People-related decisions that are made based on employee feedback will of course yield the most rewarding results because employees themselves are driving it. This is the way to convert negative employee emotions into positive ones, and therefore drives engaging behaviours.

Educate and support line managers on the value of employee emotional analytics, feedback and engagement

Conducting employee engagement surveys mean little if line managers aren’t on board or if they don’t understand the importance of them. Line managers make team decisions and are closest to the workforce, which means they’re the most important piece to this employee engagement puzzle. Line managers need to be educated and trained on the value of employee feedback and how it can drive strategic decision making, plus how this relates to enhanced employee emotion, behaviour and employee engagement. It’s important that line managers also feel supported and guided especially if the process is new to them. If line managers feel uninformed and thrown in the deep end, the chances of them rejecting employee engagement strategies is high.

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