Do You Know Steps Managers Can Take to Increase Employee Engagement?
Most companies these days understand the crucial role employee engagement plays in business success. Higher levels of employee engagement correlate to 18% greater productivity, 12% higher customer satisfaction, and 51% less voluntary turnover.  And from a manager’s point of view, higher employee engagement scores correlate to more discretionary effort, advocacy, and loyalty from their team.

Most companies conduct regular employee engagement surveys to measure the degree of engagement. The survey itself is of little value; it’s how effective leaders are at following through on employee engagement actions that will increase the level of engagement for everyone’s benefit – the individual employee, people managers, and the company as a whole.  Many companies simply don’t know how to interpret engagement survey results and improve upon them.

Steps Managers Can Take to Increase Employee Engagement
We know from our organizational culture assessment data that highly engaged and motivated employees feel that their manager listens, values their input, is trustworthy, and makes fair decisions. Here are some steps managers, especially new managers, can take to increase engagement on their team:

  1. Align Personal Motivations with Organizational Purpose
    Try to uncover individual team members’ motivations (what gets them up in the morning and eager to work) and look for job assignments that align with their passions. The closer employees’ motivations align with their professional role, the more engaged they will be.

  2. Show that You Care
    Take a sincere interest in what your employee cares about, both personally and professionally. Schedule regular one-on-one engagement meetings where you can learn about what they like to do, their ambitions, and their challenges. An empathetic manager demonstrates that they care about their employees’ wellbeing.

  3. Empower Your Team Members
    Give your employees more discretionary power to make decisions. With increased autonomy comes a greater sense of ownership and responsibility to the job, the team, and the organization.

  4. Provide Growth Opportunities
    Few employees are content to do the same job over and over. Most employees, especially high performers, want to learn and grow. Have you had career development conversations with your employees so they have a sense of the path forward and what they can aspire to?

  5. Earn Employee Trust
    Do you as a manager follow through on your commitments? Are you honest, open, and fair in your dealings across the board? Do you behave in an authentic and consistent way? As you earn the trust of your employees as a leader, you earn their respect and loyalty — along with an increasing intention to do their best.

The Bottom Line
Leaders who are in close contact with their teams can have an enormous impact on engagement. They support and encourage meaningful effort with appropriate extrinsic and intrinsic rewards, they provide developmental guidance and opportunities, and they model fairness in all their interactions.

To learn more about steps managers can take to increase employee engagement, download Research Report – Relationship Between Employee Engagement and Manager Effectiveness

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