Employee Engagement Strategies for 2017

A new year in business is usually kicked off with some new initiatives, goals, or resolutions. You probably have already complied your business plan for the year and have started working on it. Wonderful! Does your plan include employee engagement?
Employee Engagement is about having people emotionally committed to the company and its goals. The outcome of having engagement is everyone wants the company to succeed and are willing to go the extra mile to get there. The result – good customer service, returning customers, employees who show up every day, and you enjoying the business.

So how to you get this?

Start with these 3 strategies:

Make it about them. Make it personal and relevant. When outlining goals, talk about how it will impact them personally or their team. Let them know how their work affects others in their department or other departments. For example: The accounting clerk contributes to the goal of better customer service by ensuring accuracy and timeliness of the invoicing process.

Results Focus. Many times we have a tendency to focus on “how” things are done instead of the result. Focusing on the how gets us caught in the “weeds” instead on what is important, the result. For example: if your marketing person is researching a new market segment, as long as they get the right and relevant information does it matter how?

Increase personal communication. Usually at this time of year, everyone is working on doing Performance Reviews. Not a fan because meaningful conversation is limited to once a year or possibly twice. It is based on criteria that may or may not move the company forward. Instead, determine the 3 or 4 factors that are important to your business and talk to employees on a monthly or semi-monthly basis. Use the same factors in every conversation and watch the conversation change and grow over the year.