Paul Keijzer described employee engagement as the holy grail of business leaders. The majority of US businesses spend over USD 700 million a year to engage their employees. According to Gallup the global poll platform published 2016 U.S. employee engagement news as it reached new high in 2016 averaging at 34.1 % as compared to 2015 when it was 32 % were considered engaged.
Predominantly every CEO and HR manager knows the importance of engaging in employee engagement approach. At the core of it employee engagement helps to:
- increase productivity
- enhance company's overall performance
- build commitment and align role rotation
- create unconstrained atmosphere at workplace
- boost creativity and teamwork among employees
1. Follow the rules of MAD mission driven companies
Mission-driven companies that strive to make a difference attract like-minded people who take companies’ vision personally. Take a look at B corporations, a business movement (not to be confused with the nonprofit sector) that aims to redefine success in business by creating sustainable impact. At the moment there are over 1300 companies in 41 countries that joined the movement. B corporations are different from traditional companies because they all have “positive vision of a better way to do business.” For example, Elemental Herbs a California-based quality organic ingredients and wild-crafted herbs linked business objectives to people, planet, and profit. Companies like Elemental Herbs engage and attract employees that strive to make a difference by leaving the positive impact.
2. Establish transparent relationships
Open culture engages employees and allows them to have clear expectations about their performance. Transparency also helps employees to communicate with senior management directly and therefore helps to foster innovation and entrepreneurship in the company. A study notes that employees value an ability to speak directly to leaders and provide their viewpoint on an issue. Here you can read 10 ways to build the transparent culture in an organization. We are building Workly as a transparent organization by encouraging communication and open dialogue. Transparency helps us to dream big and execute effectively, the two qualities that we love.
3. Engage your employees in different projects
We all have various interests and given that we spend a great deal of time at work, it makes sense to work on what you enjoy. At Workly, we generally dedicate 10 percent of our time to side projects. Our team initiated and developed Go programming language course that will be offered for free at a university. We have at least one meetup per week where we discuss everything from indie games design to database optimization practices. This tradition creates a workplace that engages employees by allowing them to grow professionally and personally.