Best Ways to Engage Your Employees

At Helios, our mission is to support enlightened leaders in attracting, retaining and engaging their workforce.  By engaging employees, organization leaders are creating an environment where everyone is at work because they want to be. Employee engagement is not only beneficial to productivity, but also has a direct correlation to improved morale. So, how do you engage your employees?

Communicate

• Open and honest feedback is vital to employee engagement
• Provide continuous open and honest feedback about where your organization is going and how the employees are contributing
• Leadership needs to be open to feedback they receive from employees as well
• Communicate your organization’s objectives and strategies and provide employees with measurable and observable goals for desired workplace performance
• Be sure to articulate your mission, vision, and values. When there is a shared vision, people are motivated to excel and grow, not because they have been told to, but because they have the desire to succeed
• Leadership should challenge your employees and create a safe environment for honest feedback to encourage growth and development

Recognize

• Motivate your employees and reinforce desired behaviors through employee recognition
• Consider recognizing employees who exhibit your company values to reinforce employee behaviors that are aligned with your company’s values
• It is important when recognizing employees to be specific about what behavior and value was observed and why it is important to the organization
• Recognition should also occur as soon as possible after the behavior has been exhibited

Develop

• Support your employees and invest in them
• Encourage employees to take ownership of their career development by giving them the tools and resources they need for success
• Establish and clearly communicate career paths
• Provide employees with clear expectations and consistent feedback
• Provide managers with training to ensure they provide their employees with clear expectations, feedback, support and the resources needed
• Provide employees with internal training opportunities and resources and support to attend external trainings
• Trainings should include education tools and programs that allow for lifelong learning and skills development to help an employee to gain the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed for job success
• Consider implementing a mentoring program to provide employees with a champion and consistent feedback while also ensuring knowledge is shared throughout the organization

By providing your employees with clear and consistent communication, frequent and specific recognition, and supporting them in their career development, you will create a culture of intention where your employees will show up to work each and every day because they have a desire to contribute value to your organization’s mission. In other words, communication, recognition, and development are key to an engaged workforce.