US Employers lose 550 billion dollars a year due to poor employee engagement.
The 6 steps discussed in this episode will allow employers to deploy a framework that will build an engagement culture.
Check out the episode.
Tell a friend.
Music Credit: Maarten Schellekens - Riviera
Follow us at:
www.cascadingleadership.com
linkedin.com/in/drjimk
linkedin.com/in/1lawrenceobrown
US Employers lose 550 billion dollars a year due to poor employee engagement.
The 6 steps discussed in this episode will allow employers to deploy a framework that will build an engagement culture.
Check out the episode.
Tell a friend.
Music Credit: Maarten Schellekens - Riviera
Follow us at:
www.cascadingleadership.com
linkedin.com/in/drjimk
linkedin.com/in/1lawrenceobrown
6 Ways to Improve Employee Engagement
[00:00:00] Dr. Jim: welcome to today's episode of Cascading Leadership. I am your friendly neighborhood talent strategy nerd, Dr. Jim. And today we're gonna tackle the topic of employee engagement, and specifically we're gonna talk about six ways that you can improve employee engagement. The goal in this conversation is to provide everybody that's in talent strategy, a framework that they can use and.
[00:00:20] Dr. Jim: Improve their overall level of employee engagement. So why do we care about employee engagement in the first place? Goes without saying maybe you're not aware of the data behind it. But when we look at employee engagement as an issue the US loses somewhere in the neighborhood of 550 billion a year in productivity due to poor employee engagement.
[00:00:41] Dr. Jim: So using this six step framework and, there's more things that you can do, but this at least gives you a roadmap. On how to create better engagement within your organizations. And that's gonna have impact when it can comes to productivity, when it comes to retention, when it comes to organizational effectiveness in [00:01:00] any number of areas.
[00:01:01] Dr. Jim: So let's get right to it. So first things first, what you can do is you need to provide opportunities for professional development, and, growth. This could be training programs. This could be mentoring. It could be wrapped into your benefits and total comp where you have tuition reimbursement, but you need to be thinking about.
[00:01:17] Dr. Jim: The employee for life mentality versus the employee of the moment. And one of the ways to keep your employees engaged is to make sure that there is a development path that you've laid out that people can access . So HR should be playing a role in creating awareness about all the different development plans or paths that are available.
[00:01:36] Dr. Jim: Next thing that you can do is you need to make sure that employees have all the tools and resources that they need to do their jobs effectively. One of the biggest factors that leads to poor productivity is a lack of tools and resources. You may want to shoot the moon and take your organization to the moon.
[00:01:55] Dr. Jim: But if you're constantly having your people operate with duct tape and super glue, that's gonna [00:02:00] be a problem in terms of where your employees are from a mindset perspective, and it's highly likely you're probably gonna burn them out. Third thing that you can do, and this ties into your embedding D E I B into your organization, you need to make sure that you're creating a positive and inclusive work culture.
[00:02:17] Dr. Jim: You need to encourage collaboration. You need to break down silos across your organization, and you need to make sure that you're intentional about making sure that everybody has a seat at the table and is heard and has an equal footing and advancing initiatives forward. Fourth. , you need to make sure that you are recognizing and rewarding employees and their contributions to the organization.
[00:02:41] Dr. Jim: Have a mechanism in place where the best idea, regardless of where it comes from, gets moved forward and gets recognized in public so that you're building that culture where everybody has a stake in the organization's success. And if you consistently do that across all levels, you're gonna see a dramatic impact in terms of your employee engagement [00:03:00] efforts.
[00:03:00] Dr. Jim: Fifth, What you need to do is make sure that you're giving a again this, goes into embedding d e I principles throughout your organizations. Make sure every employee has a voice in the decision making process. Be regularly doing pulse checks and feedback loops so that you can Get a, keep a finger on the pulse on what's going on within the organization.
[00:03:22] Dr. Jim: If there's important decisions that need to be made, if if, you're building a culture where you're openly asking questions about how can we make this place of work better and you ask feedback, make sure you act on that feedback instead of just having it be a a, black hole where feedback is given, but no action is taken.
[00:03:38] Dr. Jim: last, but certainly not least, you need to make sure that you are providing regular and effective communication from all levels of the organization, but leadership especially you may or may not be in the radical transparency camp, but there is a certain level of transparency that is going to be highly productive or highly useful in [00:04:00] keeping your employees engaged.
[00:04:01] Dr. Jim: Keep in mind, your entire staff is Is generally the adult worker. So even if it's bad news, if it's done in a way that's transparent with kindness I think people respect that decision. I think where you run into problems from an employee engagement perspective is that if you're in a culture that doesn't have a communication plan in place and there's a constant set of surprises that your employees are dealing with.
[00:04:27] Dr. Jim: So to recap, if you're trying to solve the issue of employee engagement and you want to have a framework that you can deploy to solve these things, here are the six things that you need to do. Regular opportunities for advancement. Two, making sure that employees are properly resourced. Three. Making sure that you have a culture that is positive and inclusive with a strong focus on D E I B principles.
[00:04:52] Dr. Jim: Four. You need to make sure that you are recognizing and rewarding employees for their contributions. Five. You need to make sure that [00:05:00] employees are included in the decision making process, and six, you need to make sure that you're providing regular. Clear, transparent communication about what's going on within the organization, and it has to happen at all levels of leadership.
[00:05:13] Dr. Jim: So hopefully this framework is gonna be helpful for those of you who are trying to solve the challenges associated with poor employee engagement. If you like this episode share it with your friends. Make sure you're subscribe and follow on your favorite podcast platform. You can find us on all major social platforms with the exception of Instagram under the cascading leadership handle. If you like the show leave us a review.
[00:05:38] Dr. Jim: We are looking to aggressively grow our show so that we can continue our mission of helping you drive your careers further faster. Thanks for joining us today on Cascading Leadership, and until next time, we will talk soon.