Listen to Employees to Engage Them in the Workplace

An engaged employee is someone in the workforce who shows enthusiasm for his or her work. In practical terms, that feeling motivates the employee’s actions on the job.

In a recent Fast Company article by Michael Papay, CEO of Waggl, a real-time communication tool, and Alexandre Santille, co-CEO of Affero Lab, a corporate education provider in Latin America, it was noted that engagement is now “a leading buzzword” among corporations.

For instance, one Deloitte (News - Alert) study says 78 percent of business leaders called it “an urgent and important priority.” Gallup and others have found in surveys that customer satisfaction, productivity, profits, quality, retention and sales are “significantly higher at companies with a concentration of engaged employees,” the article adds.

But in reality 70 percent of workers are not engaged at their jobs. One study estimates that leads to half-a-trillion-dollars in lost revenue.

To get employees more engaged they need to be listened to. “Give us an opportunity to share what we know and debate the important issues. Involve us in planning, decision-making, innovation, and strategy,” the article suggested. This can be accomplished by four basic strategies, the two authors say. Try to concentrate on the big issues not the kind of topics which wind up in suggestion boxes. Use open-ended questions to get feedback from employees rather than typical surveys. Ensure employees can make their comments anonymously. And the last suggestion is to not forget to say thanks to the employees for their suggestions and “take action” on them.

Engagement needs to be a high priority company-wide, as well. In fact, Gallup has argued it should be connected to an organization’s mission and should involve a top-down approach, which includes leadership teams. “If leaders portray employee engagement as simply a survey or human resources initiative – or worse, aren't involved at all – they won't realize the business results they're looking for. The best leaders understand that there's an emotional undercurrent to everything they do, which affects how they conduct business every day,” Gallup Business Journal reported.