How to Improve Employee Engagement

It’s no secret that satisfied employees are more involved, enthusiastic, and committed to their work and their organization. That’s why keeping employees successfully engaged is the key to improving workplace culture and your bottom line. Yet, according to Gallup data, only about 34 percent of U.S. workers—and 13 percent worldwide—report that they are engaged at work. We're here to help you change this, so uncover how to improve employee engagement in your organization.  

Set Employees Up for Success

Make sure employees have the tools they need to understand, perform, and excel at their job. This starts at the very beginning of the hiring process with transparent job descriptions. Then, you need to secure a comprehensive onboarding training process in place. Finally, be sure to provide ongoing, up-to-date modules to keep employees fresh on the latest policies, technologies, and other resources evolving with their role.

Empower Employees at All Levels

From junior-level employees to leaders and managers, everyone in your organization should feel equipped and encouraged to advance in their careers and improve their performance. Offering regular training and coaching helps employees feel actively invested in and cared about.

Here are some ongoing topics you may want to consider facilitating authentic engagement and help your employees grow in their careers:

• Career Development Courses. Empower employees to be successful in their careers and show that you care about their progression. Explore Career Development Training Materials.
• Communication. Clear and transparent communication at all levels ensures an engaged workplace and culture of value. Consider offering your employees training programs to help them better understand their communication styles so they can successfully and authentically communicate across the workplace. Explore Communication Training Materials.
• Learning Styles & Skills. Help your employees understand themselves and how they work. These courses equip employees with the tools they need to get the most out of their jobs and move up quickly and strategically. Explore Learning Styles & Skills Training Materials.

Explore all of the training materials available at HRDQ. From Accountability and Change Management to Leadership, Team Building, Performance Management, and much more, we offer a full range of powerful assessments and workshops to help you deliver high quality, effective training.

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Communicate, Both Ways

Communicating with employees is a two-way street. That may sound self-evident, but too often, leadership sends out e-blasts and memos, while forgetting to solicit feedback and listen to employees. To improve employee engagement, it’s crucial to confirm you have mechanisms in place through which employees can communicate with senior leadership and one another. Many platforms exist to facilitate this sort of exchange, such as Workplace (Facebook’s office counterpart), Slack, and various employee intranet platforms, to name a few.

It’s also helpful to have a clear, centralized means by which employees can directly respond to mass emails. Maybe that’s an email address dedicated explicitly to leadership feedback. Or you could send out regular surveys to collect employee comments, questions, and concerns.

Giving employees a clear way to communicate with leadership is a great way to demonstrate that you value their feedback. Ensure your employees aren’t just informed, but genuinely listened to and empowered to make a difference at your organization, and the better satisfaction will seem on an organization level.

Use the communication skills training materials available at HRDQ to develop a more collaborative and communicative environment in the workplace.

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Be Transparent

While you may be communicating effectively, the way you communicate during times of tumult at your organization has the power to make or break employee trust and engagement. If there’s been a change in leadership, if stock prices are down, or if you’ve had a terrible quarter and need to lay off some staff, etc.—employees don’t want to hear it from the news or social media first. They want to feel important and valued enough to hear it from leadership first.

Remember to not just employ those communication tips for your regular, day-to-day employee engagement strategy. Employ them also, and especially, in times of stress. Think of these moments as your chance to show who you really are as an organization. Strive for authenticity, transparency, and trustworthiness, and your employees will thank you.

Facilitate Exchange

An excellent way to engage employees is to help them engage with one another. Have you considered setting up a mentorship program in your organization? Read our blog post on How to Structure a Mentorship Program for insight to help you define your program across your organization. These programs are a fantastic way to help employees connect to and empower one another in an authentic and productive way.

Equip Leaders for Success

Employee engagement starts at the top, so you’ll especially want to make sure employee engagement-specific training is part of manager and leader training and reviews. Our Employee Engagement Customizable Course is an effective tool for getting leaders the training they need to ensure every employee feels valued and engaged.

Engagement Beyond the Office

Engage employees by empowering them to get involved in their community. Hosting regular volunteering opportunities helps employees feel good about the organization they work for while facilitating internal relationships and helping the community in which you operate. Creating opportunities for employees to get together outside the office, such as organizing sports teams or employee interest groups, can also go a long way in improving their sentiment toward their work.

Tell Your Story

Give your employees a reason to feel proud of the work they do and the company they work for! Does your organization have a clear mission and vision? Are you telling that story to your organization? Make sure you’re clear and concise about why you exist as a company. Then be strategic about how you tell that story. Equip leaders with an effective narrative and talking points. Communicate it often. Give employees resources to share. Highlight your impact regularly. Dream big and follow through. Employees who know why they show up to the office every day are more likely to engage more with their work.

Your Turn

Improving employee engagement is a big undertaking. To help you improve critical areas across your organization, turn to HRDQ for a wide range of high-quality training materials.

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