Many companies try to create a healthy company culture and a positive workspace but fail no matter how hard they try to make the employees more engaged. Employees are sometimes not disconnected from their companies, but managers are. That is why you should work on employer engagement.
We will cover what an engaged manager brings to the table and give you some input on increasing your employer engagement.
In this article, we will talk about:
- What is Employer Engagement?
- Why should you work on Employer Engagement?
- How to be a better and more engaged manager?
What is Employer Engagement?
Employer engagement is a cognitive, emotional, and behavioral effort that the company’s management makes to be more connected to their employees.
Employees should appreciate those efforts in giving back a similar action in their work for the company, which is evaluated through employee engagement. So no matter how much precious time you invest into your engagement, it will have a significant return on investment through the productivity of your employees.
Why should you work on Employer Engagement?
A long-term study by Forbes found that the best corporate cultures that encouraged all-around leadership initiatives and highly appreciated their employees, customers, and owners grew 682 percent in revenue.
You must work on your ermployer engagement to be your best manager! Here, we will state some benefits of being engaged with your employees.
Employee Engagement
Employees tend to reflect their managers’ values and traits. If the manager puts in the much-needed effort, then the employees will return the given energy.
Did you know that when managers recognize their employees’ performance, they increase employee engagement by nearly 60%? So the moral of the story is: to recognize, motivate and engage with your employees.
Employer Branding
Your employees will make a brand of you being a great manager and employer. People that love to work with you will spread the word about how great working with you is, and you will get as attractive an employer as it gets
Reduce Employee Turnover
As the process of replacing an employee is a high-cost problem, you should do everything in your power to try and reduce it.
Creating a highly engaged and satisfied workforce will make your employees less likely to search for new jobs.
If you want more tips on reducing employee turnover and figuring out what can cause it, read our blog.
How to be a better and more engaged manager?
We know it’s not easy to change the way you work and your everyday habits, but these are some tips on what you can do to be more engaged.
Employee Engagement Survey
There is no point in beating around the bush, just go straight to your employees and ask their opinions.
You can get a lot from an anonymous employee survey with nicely designed and formulated questions. For example, you can find out how your employees feel when it comes to working, know what they like about the job, and some negative points that could be fixed. It is a great way to see the problems and, at the same time, an excellent opportunity to let your employees work on solving the problem.
Just doing the survey is not enough. You have to consider and try to solve the problems stated in those surveys. Then, try to implement these changes that your employees recommended. Listen to their ideas. They must know you really listen to them and value their opinions.
Create a reward-based system
A recent survey found employee recognition was most important to 37% of employees.
Employees need to feel valued and appreciated. You cannot expect your employees to continue giving you their A-game if they don’t feel noticed and valued for it.
A great way to acknowledge your employees is by giving them genuine feedback on their excellent work. You can even get fancy and use some tool like kudos on Jenz so your employees can count their kudos and share the number of received ones with their colleagues. That makes them super transparent, and your employees will feel excited getting one.
If you would like to push it even further and get the maximum of this method, you can use a budget and make a monetized reward-based system. It means that when your employees do something that increases their engagement, but it’s not necessary, you can reward them. They are going the extra mile just for your cause. That is something worth acknowledging.
Connect with your employees
Instead of having a strict formal relationship with your employees, try a slightly more relaxed approach. The more you interact with your employees, the more they will engage with you.
What is a better way to make yourself more approachable and connect to your employees on social media, where you can share your hobbies, interests, know-how, and much more. We know you want to separate your business life from your private one. That is why you can use a closed social network like Jenz.
Even if you set up a platform for all your employees to interact with you, how should you act on it as a manager? The point is that you should be as active as anybody else, if not even more. As a leader, you set an example and pave the way for others. You should post, like, comment, and try to include yourself in those interactions. That’s what makes a community inside a company and further leads to company culture.
But building relations online is only the beginning. After interacting online, try to translate that relationship in person. Organize team buildings, work more casually, be ready to mingle, and always be approachable and willing to help your employees.
Conclusion
Most of the time, being in charge means you have to be a master of your craft and, at the same time, a person with excellent interpersonal skills. But unfortunately, being a great manager is not as easy as everyone thinks.
You can improve your employer engagement by keeping in mind just a few tips about being more approachable and interactive. As you already came to the end of this article, it tells you are an open-minded manager ready to up their skills, so you are already well on your way.
