Secrets for Building Strong Employee Engagement

A study by Gallup found that only 33% of U.S. workers (and 15% of employees worldwide) are engaged in their workplace.

It’s not difficult as an employer to tell the difference between someone that is fully engaged in helping drive your company forward and those that are just doing as asked until they can clock out for the day.

Employee engagement makes a big difference in how well your IT business can operate, the type of customer experience it provides, and your overall growth. Engaged employees are more productive and take the time to contribute to their company’s success.

Some of the benefits of having a more engaged team include:

• 21% greater business profitability
• 24-59% less turnover

So, how do you go about getting more engagement from your team? 

We have several “secrets” for fostering a more engaged workforce that will benefit your employer/employee relationships and your business bottom line.

Invite a Team-Based Approach

You can sit in your office or conference room and make decisions about employee engagement at the executive level. But this just invites a separation between “us and them.” It’s not the most productive way to invite more engagement.

You do this by taking a team-based approach. Employee engagement is really just enabling employees to feel positive about what they’re doing and encouraging them to be active participants in the company’s success.

Learn what factors might be getting in the way by surveying employees and having open forums where everyone can provide input. And then take it one step further by making your staff part of the solution as well through active listening of their input.

Provide Non-Judgmental Avenues for Idea & Problem Sharing

What are some of the things that keep employees from making suggestions that can improve an organization?

A few common fears employees may have are:

• If I speak up about us needing this new process, it will just get dumped on me, and I’m too busy already.
• If I tell my boss about a problem, I could get someone in trouble.
• No one ever listens to my suggestions anyway, so why bother?
• If I point out a recommendation for customer support, I could be asked, “Why weren’t you doing that already?” so why risk it?

It’s important to foster an environment of transparency where everyone can voice concerns and ideas without being judged or getting themselves or a colleague in trouble.

Offer avenues for constructive sharing where employees won’t have to feel like they’re on the spot or that there will be backlash for a concern that’s voiced.

You can keep these discussion channels from becoming places where people just gripe all the time by asking what solution they suggest for a particular concern. Or how they would recommend a suggestion in process change be carried out.

Allow Employees to Have a Voice in How They Do Things

If you want your employees to be engaged, it’s a two-way street. You need to listen to their input, and not just take it and then unilaterally decide on a solution because you’re the boss.

As a business owner and manager, you benefit from understanding that even people with a decade or two less experience than you, may have a better idea for how things can be done.

Allow your employees to have a voice in how they do things. If you immediately shut down a suggestion, saying that will never work, then you shut down their excitement and they become less engaged.

If you have concerns about an idea, discuss those openly and then, if possible, allow the employee a trial period using their new process to see how things go. This way they’re very aware of what you think could go wrong and may work even harder to keep that from happening.

Bottom line is that they’ll be more invested in what they do because they helped shape how they do their work.

Incorporate Change Management When Making System/Process Changes

Have you ever tried to get your employees to adopt a new MSP software tool or new ticketing process only to have the initiative fail? 

Many transitional projects to new tools or systems fail because an important piece of the planning was missing… change management.

Change management is about addressing the needs of the people that must adopt a new process. Making sure they understand the changes, how they will benefit, and getting them the right training to become proficient.

This approach also ensures employees have the support required during the weeks after a new process is live to help them through any adoption road bumps.

Improve Employee Engagement With a Platform That Makes MSP Work Easier

The Syncro RMM/PSA platform reduces the workload for your team by automating many of the processes that make up their daily tasks. This encourages more engagement and allows more time to generate productive ideas.  

 

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