Employee engagement is one of the cornerstones of any successful organization. Engaged employees are those who identify themselves with the company’s mission and vision, and who strive to do their job in a way which will benefit them and the company in the end. On the other hand, employees who are not engaged and committed often perform their tasks just to earn a salary, without ever putting any effort into it. In the managerial process, it’s often easy to neglect employee engagement and hinder your company’s productivity and overall success. Here are some employee engagement management mistakes you should try to avoid:

Waiting for it to happen

Engagement needs to be fostered. You cannot allow yourself to wait and see what happens, since this way things will rarely work out the way you expected. It is a manager’s or owner’s duty to create the right atmosphere and conditions where people will feel inclined to engage themselves. There are a couple of things you could do this. First, before you even start, you need to make employee engagement a vital part of your business plan. Second, it is necessary that the clear paths for communicating the company vision and goals are set. Also, last but not least, employees need to feel that their needs and suggestions are heard, thus making them empowered and motivated.

Lack of leadership

It is easy to lose track of employee engagement without the leadership that is actively involved in the day to day communication within the company. Employees today demand a flexible and collaborative workplace, and leadership that is in tune with the mission of the organization will help get it there. For greater employee engagement, leaders should be able to develop trust across the organization, to enable clear channels of communication where everyone’s voice can be heard, and to provide mentoring and coaching opportunities for everyone.

Failing to monitor engagement precisely

Evaluating engagement is not something that can be winged and improvised. You need to accurately measure it to get data that is valuable and actionable over time. That’s where an employee monitoring system like Uniguard comes in handy, by allowing you to closely observe employee performance and engagement, all up to the moment when the task is complete. Such a system offers a couple of great features. You can easily access all your databases and get all the info you need in real time. The responsibility and duties of every employee are clearly visible, making it easier to track progress and the completion of tasks. That way, problems can be identified at the beginning, which makes it easier to address and solve them promptly. Learning about the strengths and weaknesses of your organization in real time, and responding to them, can genuinely boost your company’s productivity!

Neglecting employee feedback

Sometimes to get some useful info, all you need to do is ask. It’s the same with employee engagement. You won’t be able to know how engaged your workers are if you don’t check with them first. Eliciting feedback can be done by hiring an outside consultant or by doing it yourself, usually through a survey. Also, in-person interviews can be a great way to get a response. These types of actions give the management a chance to see how satisfied employees are with the organization at that time, and what things need to improve in the future.

Poor communication

Asking employees to take a survey or interview is not enough. The results of it and the following actions need to be adequately communicated across the whole organization. Without any further communication or discussion, you’ll run into the risk of creating an atmosphere of mistrust, where your employees will feel undervalued or disheartened. So, to successfully implement any survey, it is necessary to communicate with employees every step of the way. Informing them about what the results were and what the next steps will be, will make them feel appreciated and respected by the company.

Lack of human interaction

One of the main reasons why people lose touch with the company and become less productive as a result is the absence of interaction with other colleagues, and feeling lonely inside the organization. Without deeper social bonds, people are less likely to feel connected to the company. In turn, this could make them feel depressed or overwhelmed. So, any thoughtful manager should look into encouraging interpersonal connections and communication. The most popular way of doing this is by organizing team-building events, where you’ll give your employees a chance to see each other in a completely different light, detached from the workplace. Giving people a common interest can easily make them feel more connected with each other.

Employee engagement is a challenge every manager needs to face at one point or another. Seeing that every company is unique in its own way, the approach to solving issues regarding engagement needs to be tailored to fit your needs. However, the safest way to improve engagement is to listen to your employees, and continuously make them feel valued and essential. Make no mistake, such employees will give everything they’ve got for you!

Originally posted at RuhaniRabin.com
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