6 Stunningly Simple Ways To Engage Your Employees

Employees – and their knowledge, demeanor and commitment to success – determine  efficacy of your customer experience strategy.

Well-trained, content, passionate employees drive customer satisfaction and loyalty.  Indifferent ones do not simply fail to connect with customers – they risk alienating them.

Employee engagement, accordingly, represents a tentpole of customer contact strategy.

There are numerous ways to create a more engaged, more empowered team of employees.  Some, including the six shared by CCW Digital Influencer Steve DiGioia, are stunningly simple.

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Poor employee morale, theft of product, loss of revenue, dissatisfied customers, lower production, accidents/injuries, and negative messages about the company on social media…does this sound like your company?

In a recent study by Dale Carnegie Training and MSW they found that…

• $11 Billion is lost annually due to employee turnover
• 71% of employees are not fully engaged
• 26% of employees are actively disengaged

Pretty startling statistics, right?

What causes an employee to disengage?

Based on my experience, these are the most frequent reasons I have seen that lead to employee disengagement:

• Feeling that they don’t matter or that management doesn’t care about their ideas.
• Lack of equipment to do their job.
• Poor working conditions.
• Little or no room for advancement or attainment of knowledge (stuck in a dead-end position).
• When promises from their supervisor don’t materialize.

Why is an engaged workforce vital to the success of an organization?

If employees aren’t engaged the business will never reach the success level ownership desires.

According to Gallup, companies with engaged employees outperform those without by up to 202%.

Since we can clearly see the benefit of having engaged employees, why do so few companies take the needed steps to ensure they take care of their employees?

Because they have fallen into the trap of complacency.

Removed from the day-to-day operations of the business, management spends more time reading reports than interacting with their customers. Poorly trained employees are left to fend for themselves and use their best judgment to service the customers.

The management team goes from meeting to meeting to discuss ways to “maximize workflow patterns” or “move the needle” on their latest budget – then they dole out the newest policy to their recruits when the meeting(s) is over.

Seems like your leadership team needs to be the first ones to be “re-engaged” and made to understand again who actually runs the business and makes it successful…the employees!

What are some behaviors or strategies that you can use to help keep your team engaged?

1. Personal Thanks:

Either one-on-one or to a group, goes a long way. This must be a regular part of the managers “toolkit”.

2. Cross Training:

Increasing employee knowledge, by having them trained in other departments or positions, provides a sense of value to an employee and puts them on a fast track for advancement when available.

3. Host Offsite Events For The Team:

Get out of the office every once and awhile and have some fun. Doesn’t your team deserve this?

4. Clearly Communicate Expectations and Reward Their Efforts:

Remember the old saying – “Tell me and I forget; show me and I remember; involve me and I understand” or, one of my old favorites: “we can’t expect what we don’t inspect.”

Either way, Make sure your employees know what is expected and when they get it right, provide a worthwhile reward and encouragement.

5. Acknowledge Special Days/Events of the Employees:

If you like to be acknowledged for work performed, your birthday, a work anniversary or a specific goal(s) achieved, so will your employees. Make these days special and noticed.

6. Monthly Meetings With The “Boss”:

All employees need to feel valued and believe they have a say in the future of the business. Or, when problems arise, allow their viewpoint on ways to fix it to be heard. There’s no better way to do this then over a casual lunch with the boss.

So, come on, get ready to engage your employees. You can’t afford to wait any longer!