Why is employee engagement important?
Employee engagement is about creating a high-performing workforce, where employees care about the organisation and strongly believe in its mission, purpose and values.
Engagement isn’t just about how happy or satisfied employees are – just because they’re happy at work doesn’t always mean that they are working productively. Engaged employees have an emotional commitment to working towards business goals – they aren’t just working for a paycheck or promotion.
Employee engagement goes beyond simple job satisfaction and motivation. Employees need to engage for success, all working towards something they truly believe in.
The role of wellbeing in employee engagement
‌
Health and wellbeing play a vital role in achieving employee engagement, as it helps to create a healthy culture, both physically and mentally. It allows individual employees to talk by creating an open and honest atmosphere when it comes to things such as mental health.
‌
A health and wellbeing strategy can help keep employees happy, healthy, motivated and engaged. It also helps to reduce absenteeism and improve presenteeism.
‌
Employee engagement can’t be forced, by neither the organisation nor its employees. It has to be part of the company culture – ingrained into the business and within each employee.
‌
Here are 5 actionable employee engagement tips:
‌
1. Giving staff flexibility
‌
Allowing employees to be flexible about their working hours can often mean that they are less stressed at work because they have a more positive work-life balance. In return, employees are more productive and engaged. Not offering suitable ways of flexible working can lead to leavism, where employees work outside of hours and during annual leave, and often they can become burnt out with stress as a result.
‌
2. Looking after employees’ physical health
‌
The mental health and physical health of workers are equally important. The obvious benefit to this is that healthier employees are absent less often, so by encouraging and promoting a healthy workforce you are reducing sickness absence and making substantial cost savings.
‌
Healthy employees are also more motivated at work, at less risk of long-term illness and recover more quickly if they do become sick. Promoting healthy living by providing resources and encouraging healthy eating habits such as encouraging them to drink water and providing free fruit.
‌
It’s beneficial to provide employees with a health cash plan to help cover their medical costs, and gain access to treatment and screenings faster should they need it.
‌3. Supporting mental health
‌
With mental health issues affecting 1 in 4 in the UK each year, it’s increasingly important that workplaces are offering the right support and taking a positive approach to mental health awareness. When employees know that they can comfortably discuss issues relating to their mental health, they are more likely to be engaged.
‌
Line managers are best placed to spot potential signs of employees who are struggling. Offering mental health training, such as Mental Health First Aid, to line managers enables them to spot the early signs and take action. Being able to provide early intervention means that businesses can offer the right support.
‌
4. 1:1 meetings with managers
‌
It’s important for employees to feel that they have a voice and can see that their role is making a difference and contributing towards the overall goals of the organisation. This requires effective management and healthy working relationships. Regular meetings with managers are a great way to support employees.
‌
5. Using recognition
‌
There’s a definitive link between recognition and engagement. Acknowledging employees for their work makes them feel valued and in turn develop a stronger commitment to their organisation.
‌
There are different ways to practice reward and recognition, including instant feedback from line managers, as often waiting for mid-year and yearly reviews is too late. This also reinforces the importance of regular 1:1 with line managers to celebrate success and support ongoing development.
‌
Rewarding employees should be with relevance – it differs from individual to individual, but some may respond well to a shout-out in front of the team, and others may prefer more private 1:1 praise.
