Employee engagement describes how connected staff  feels to their job. 

Improving employee engagement ought to be the aim of all employers. An engaged workforce is more profitable for a business than a disengaged one. 

Take a look at US specialist mortgage company, New Century Financial Corporation. They discovered that account managers who were engaged in their work generated 28% more revenue than their disengaged colleagues. 

There is no doubt that some companies have improved their staff engagement levels. 

However, in general approximately: 

-20% of workers are disengaged

-25% are proactively engaged

-The remainder lie somewhere in the middle of these two extremes

How Engagement Surveys Can Help

The best method to find out if you have engaged employees is to survey them. Unless you have a clear idea of the opinions and perceptions of your staff, it is difficult to improve their morale. 

You should take the time to design a engagement survey that assesses the attitudes of your staff. Then, you should use the data from this survey to strengthen the culture of your organization. 

This survey will send the message to your staff that they are important. Also, it will reinforce the commitment of your organization to evidence based practices. This encourages your staff to be more open, more productive and more enthusiastic about their work. This will reduce staff absenteeism. 

Concentrate on areas that are important to your employees, and can be accurately measured. Autonomy, communication and training are just a few of the crucial areas to tackle.

Choose the Appropriate People to be Managers

Your vitality depends on recruiting people into leadership roles. And they need the ability to be effective and inspirational managers. 

Recent studies indicate that many people have a low opinion of their boss. Parade Magazine reported that 35% of workers would rather have their manager fired, than receive a significant pay increase.

Businesses need to hire managers who genuinely care about their staff. You need people who can identify, embrace and adjust to people's differences. 

Good managers unite workers, offer clear instruction,  and help you achieve their true potential. 

The best managers know their success is directly related to how much they invest in their staff. 

Provide Staff With Everything They Require

Whenever staff members lack the resources or expertise to perform their jobs, they feel ignored. If employees feel undervalued, or that what they do is unimportant, they become disengaged. 

Providing staff with more say over their working environment has a noticeably positive impact. It causes workers to feel appreciated, and encourages them to go the extra mile for their employer.

Final Thoughts

Engaging your employees is not easy and, if you fail to follow through with this practice, your previous efforts will count for little.