Keeping employees engaged with their work is one of the most overlooked but vital aspects of fostering a happy, healthy workplace with minimal employee turnover. Nevertheless, this is often easier said than done, and consequently, many organizations will forgo all fruitful opportunities to motivate their staff and fall back to traditional routines. Fortunately, it doesn’t need to be as challenging as you imagine, and with a few simple techniques; your staff can get back on track and satisfied with their work.
No employee will last long in a position if not given clear and concise instructions about what they need to achieve. Furthermore, these instructions must be paired with apparent and attainable objectives.
One of the most common reasons for high employee turnover trends is unattainable targets that cause undue stress and severely impact productivity. Therefore, if you want your staff to be happy at work, you need to understand what an OKR is and how you can use them to get your team in a positive mindset to work.
OKRs stands for objectives and key results, and they offer a roadmap for employees to follow by defining the goals they need to meet. However, beyond mere words on a screen, they include tangible, measurable metrics enabling workers to know where they stand and how well they’re doing. Essentially, they align employees and management on a clear path that ensures everyone knows which direction to go and when to reach a specific objective.
Nothing says toxic workplace like one that discourages communication between teams and management. Open communication is one of the main hallmarks of healthy company culture since it allows employees to air grievances that are causing them issues and proffer suggestions that could improve efficiency and productivity. Some key ways to encourage this form of open and candid communication include:
Once you get into the habit of fostering this kind of culture of fee-speaking, you will discover your staff is happier at work and more able to focus and understand the tasks they’ve been assigned.
Nobody wants to be stuck in the same job for the rest of their lives, and if they conclude that there are no prospects for promotion, they will seek employment elsewhere.
One way to reassure your staff that you have their best interests at heart is to offer training and other ways to develop their skill sets with a path to a promotion down the line. When they know their professional development situation is being taken seriously, they will strive to be the best they can be.
The type of training depends on your industry. Still, almost all sectors will have job-specific education that enables employees to feel emboldened and ready to take a step up the ladder.
Like not wanting to be stuck in the same job forever, people need to feel validated that their occupation is worthwhile and contributes towards something larger than themselves. You can accomplish this by having regular meetings and updating them on their progress. Moreover, you can keep everyone in the team in the loop concerning the business’s success by showing them how their contributions contribute to the company’s success.
If you want to go the extra mile, and it’s possible, you could provide target-related bonuses that you add to their salary when specific quotes are met. Furthermore, setting targets that contribute to your company’s overall well-being can help your employees feel more confident in their positions and less likely to worry about losing their jobs due to poor performance or not contributing to the business’s success.
The traditional 9-5 simply doesn’t cut it these days. Ever since the pandemic, people have begun to realize that they can work from home just as effectively as they could from an office.
Consequently, it might be prudent to start trailing some form of flexitime that allows team members to be more flexible with their work schedules so they can better manage their work/ life balance.
This can seem pretty terrifying to most businesses. Still, almost all studies have indicated that people become more productive, and morale increases when they are able to balance their lives more effectively.
When people have an excellent work-life balance, they’re happier and more energized at work. This allows them to focus on their tasks, complete them quickly and accurately, and then go home feeling satisfied with their accomplishments.
That sense of balance can also lead to creativity. When someone feels rested, it frees up their mind to come up with fresh ideas or solutions for problems that just weren’t possible when they were tired or overwhelmed with the workload.
In addition, maintaining a healthy balance also helps employees maintain relationships outside of work. This helps them feel secure in knowing that there’s something else waiting for them besides just long hours at the office, which builds loyalty and a sense of camaraderie, which can often do wonders for employee engagement levels!
The good old performance review is part and parcel of the corporate culture. While nobody is suggesting you rid yourself of it, changing how you conduct them could be a good idea. Instead of providing employees with a simplistic view of their performance, you should offer constructive criticism where relevant in order to allow them to remedy the situation.
Most people are OK with being told they aren’t quite meeting targets; it’s how you say it that matters. Providing regular performance feedback and constructive criticism is a simple yet powerful way to promote engagement at work. This will ensure your employees have transparency regarding expectations and that they know how their performance impacts the team.
Consider implementing a semi-annual or quarterly goal-setting session with each employee where goals are created together, and progress is tracked over time. This will allow you to give consistent feedback and progress updates throughout the year while addressing any issues that may arise during the course of work.
It also provides a framework for providing constructive criticism as needed so that your team can continue to improve together. In addition, make sure to recognize effort and accomplishments on an individual level in real-time in order to keep morale high and encourage people towards more success.
Acknowledge successes publicly but provide constructive critiques privately to create an environment where learning from mistakes is seen as healthy rather than harmful. With the right approach, providing regular performance feedback can lead to more engaged employees, resulting in better results all around.
Businesses and management teams can do many things to increase employee engagement and, thus, productivity. The suggestions in this post should have provided you with a decent place to begin unlocking your team’s performance.
