At the heart of any successful and lucrative business is a motivated and engaged team of employees. Employee engagement is critical to driving productivity and innovation, as well as creating an enjoyable workplace culture. Therefore, as business owners and company leaders, it is essential to foster employee engagement to thrive in the long term. 

This blog post will provide the seven effective engagement strategies you can implement to motivate your workforce within your organisation.

Strategy # 1: Build Trust

Aside from clarity, purpose and recognition, did you know that trust is also important in developing employee engagement? Without trust, your employees may feel less important and micromanaged. But on the other hand, when you show your employees that you trust them—they cultivate a sense of ownership over their work. And as a result, they give it their all and work to the best of their abilities. In addition, trust also establishes a sense of teamwork and helps water down the hierarchical divide.

That said, it’s a must to involve your employees in relevant decisions and empower them to manage their own workload. You must also inform them of any significant changes and motivate them to take the plunge. 

Strategy # 2: Give Employees A Voice

Another key driver for employee engagement is ensuring that all your team members can share their ideas and opinions and have their voices heard. Doing so will give your employees a sense of autonomy and the feeling they’re part of something bigger. Likewise, it’s also salient to be responsive and flexible to the concerns of your employees and assure them that you are listening. 

Here are some ways you can empower employee voice to step up your employee engagement strategy:

• Team meetings or huddles
• Employee survey or questionnaire regarding communication, work-life balance, and areas of improvement to understand any challenges that employees might be facing — particularly for those working remotely
• Pulse survey for targeted and specific feedback
• Focus groups / Employee engagement groups

Strategy # 3: Nurture a Culture of Recognition

Employee recognition from leaders and peers both matters and can go a long way in reinvigorating healthy relationships in a work setting. It’s a great tool that can foster engagement, satisfaction, empowerment and loyalty. It also sets benchmarks for employees to strive for and motivates them to achieve more. So as an SME company owner, see to it that your employees feel appreciated, acknowledged, respected and empowered. 

The following are some examples of employee rewards/recognitions:

• Something as simple as verbal praise (“Good job!”, “Way to go!”)
• Thank you cards or small gifts
• Monetary bonus
• A day off
• Implement a peer-to-peer program where employees can publicly give each other positive feedback 
• An annual award ceremony to publicly acknowledge and award high achievers

Strategy # 4: Offer Flexible Working Options

Take note that everyone has unique personal circumstances to consider–so allowing your employees to choose how and when they work creates more committed employees with excellent work-life balance.

Though total flexibility isn’t always feasible since there must always be an aspect of control on the organisation’s side—that doesn’t mean that you can’t provide flexible benefits to your employees in a way that works for them. For example, you can always try these flexible working options:

• Compressed hours (4-day working weeks)
• Reduced or part-time hours
• Hybrid working set-up
• Staggered hours with flexible start and finish times

Strategy # 5:  Provide Learning and Training Opportunities

You are probably aware of the phrase—people don’t quit their jobs; they quit their bosses. Well, that’s mostly true, and it’s because it’s hard to feel motivated at work if you don’t feel valued and there’s no clear path forward for your role. In fact, according to a 2018 Workplace Learning Report survey from LinkedIn, 94% of employees state that they would stay in their jobs for a long time if they felt that their companies are genuinely invested in them. 

Remember that by providing learning and training opportunities, you can keep your employees excited and motivated about how they can utilise their new skills to contribute to your business goals.

Strategy # 6: Promote a Healthy Work-Life Balance

Be sure to communicate the importance of rest and work-life balance, so your employees feel that you also care about their mental and physical health, not just their productivity and output. This can help your workforce feel more connected and more likely to stay within your organisation. 

Strategy # 7: Be an Example of Your Company Values

Keep in mind that your business’s core values should be at the centre of its culture, and you must communicate these values to all your employees from the beginning. Thus, by defining and operationalising your core values, you’ll be able to promote a sense of purpose and drive real emotional connection to your employees that goes beyond their job descriptions. 

To Sum Up

It is clear that employee engagement is crucial for any company looking to build a more productive, prosperous and healthy workforce. So take action now and start putting these strategies into practice to ensure higher levels of morale, motivation and productivity among your key staff, which in return can also help you reach your business targets and objectives.

Achieve maximum levels of engagement and productivity in your business. Utilise an intelligent and fully automated cash flow tool, Moolamore, that can help simplify the processes of budgeting, forecasting and measuring financial performance so you and your team can work with ease. Request a demo today!