Employee engagement

Employee engagement is defined on Forbes as “the emotional commitment the employee has to the organisation and its goals.” Employee engagement is integral to running a business; if your staff have a high level of employee engagement you are going to have a strong work force. Many say that employee engagement is much more than just happy employees, it’s also to do with job satisfaction, connection with the wider work force, including senior staff and passion for the brand itself. This all leads to strong engagement which in turn helps the full business. Retaining staff for longer ensures complete client care, higher and more enthusiastic levels of service and quite simply an employee who wants to be at work and wants the business to succeed. Sounds simple, but it’s not. You have to have a clear understanding of who you are working with, who you employ, what they want from their roles and the company and then you have to ensure you keep monitoring and updating that so you are reengaging, reconnecting and most importantly communicating with them regularly and on an ongoing basis. My five tops tips are as follows: 1) Spend time with the people you work with. Understand what makes them tick and what they want from their role and their family life. Work life balance is important to everyone. 2) Ensure you offer them flexibility so they don’t feel like they can’t ask for time off or work flexibly if required. If you can make their lives easier they will put in more effort for you. 3) Communicate. Tell them things, not only what you expect of them, but what else is happening within the business. Don’t let hearsay or word of mouth take over for important business matters. Ensure they are hearing things about the business directly from you and make sure they have time with top tier management. A CEO and MD hidden behind an email doesn’t make employees work harder or smarter. 4) Relationships. Internal relationships are key for employee engagement; people who like each other tend to work better together and then are more passionate about coming to work. Ensure you are providing employees with time to engage and connect with each other so they can make friends. 5) Clarify their job. Ensure job descriptions are clear and you both understand them. They should be regularly reviewed and each individual should have goals in place to ensure they are working to achievable milestones. This will ensure they keep motivated and inspired. By Sam Wilbraham, director of award-winning oil filter brand, FriPura