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What To Do When Staff Engagement Is Low
Much is written about staff and employee engagement. Some research suggests that when you have highly engaged staff your productivity, profitability and customer satisfaction is up to 4 times better than in the average organisation.
Other research has identified that as many of as 50% of people are just going through the motions at work and picking up their salary.
So if you are a leader faced with low levels of staff or employee engagement what should you do?
Ask For Open and Honest Feedback
It can be scary to expose yourself to open and honest feedback. At the same time it is the start point for moving forward. Go into listening mode and avoid making people wrong.
Find Out What Really Matters To Employees
Yes everyone wants to fell like they are fairly rewarded financially for the work that they undertake. On the other hand money alone is rarely a long term motivator or a catalyst to engagement. You need to take the time to find out what really matters to individual employees.
Come Up With A Clearly Measurable Improvement Plan
Every organisation can come up with a plan. There is however a huge difference between a plan and a plan that you can measure. Make sure that any plan you create has clear measurement in place.
Don’t View It As An Issue For Human Resources To Deal With
Yes Human Resources are the functional experts. On the other hand they are not the people who directly manage the majority of the employees. They can advise and support and work alongside managers but by themselves they can only achieve so much.
Focus On the Opportunities Rather Than The Problems
Salary and related costs are the biggest expense for most organisations. You want to make sure you are getting the best return on this investment. Rather than focusing on the problems, focus on solutions that improve the situation.
The Bottom Line: Engaged staff deliver more and make a huge contribution to organisational success. So what action will you take to improve staff and employee engagement?
Duncan Brodie helps accountants and other professional people to become highly effective leaders and managers. To learn more about his free e-courses, click here
About the Author Duncan Brodie
Since 2006 I’ve worked with in excess of 8,000 accountants and professionals in workshops, seminars and one to one helping them land their next jobs and become better leaders, presenters and business partners. Before that I spent 25 years in accountancy climbing the career ladder from Payments Clerk to FD. I’m a CIMA Fellow, Certified Professional Coach and Team Coach Facilitator.