Ask any staffing agency in the year 2021, “What’s the one, simple factor I should be focusing on when it comes to my talent attraction and retention strategy?”

You’ll likely get a similar, if not the same answer: employee engagement.

So, we’ve put together the ultimate guide to employee engagement to help businesses of all shape, size and industry improve theirs.

But first, what does it mean?

The term “employee engagement” refers to how engaged employees are with their job and your business. It’s how passionate they are about the work they do. It’s not the same as employee satisfaction, although the two are heavily intertwined. Satisfaction is about their happiness and contentment; engagement is about their involvement and commitment to the job they do.

So what are the benefits of increasing your employee engagement? The following points for a start:

• A stronger staff turnover rate (for more tips on this specifically, check out Andrew’s previous article!) – that is, your team members will stick around for longer.
• Your employees are your best source of free marketing – so ensuring they’re fulfilled is going to contribute to a strong brand name in your industry and community.
• Simply put, stronger engagement will result in stronger performance across the board. Period!

And that’s to name just a few. Furthermore, how your employees talk and feel about your business will ultimately go a long way to attracting the top level of talent you want to secure – so here’s our short but sweet ultimate guide to employee engagement for employers to take note of, for the remainder of the year and beyond.

Recognize employees for their contributions

Even if it’s just a quick message at the end of the day to say, “Good job!”, a small shout out in the company newsletter, or a physical reward – the sentiment remains the same. And knowing that they’re doing something meaningful, something that’s recognized, will go a long way to engagement.

Make leadership a part of the team, not a higher power

When your employees see the leadership team getting involved in the day to day, it can really help create a sense of purpose. Of something bigger than just them. That’s where the feeling of community, team and – as a result – engagement, starts to build. Engagement at all levels, no less.

Keep them up-to-date with the inner goings-on

To make each member of your team feel like an important part of the whole, they need to know what’s happening. Don’t protect the inner workings of the business quite so fiercely! Of course, confidential information stays confidential – but when it comes to development, research, exciting ideas and upcoming challenges, get your staff involved. You never know what value they might have to add, and how that might positively affect their engagement with their position.

Ask for frequent feedback (then action it!)

Possibly the most important tip! To improve employee engagement, you first need to know how the team is feeling. What makes them want to come to work in the morning? What’s motivating them at the moment and, even more important than that – what isn’t? What’s hindering their excitement for their current role and the future of their career here?

Ask for the feedback, then action it. Put plans in place based on what your staff say to make sure you’re doing all you can toward increasing their engagement.

The Ultimate Guide to Employee Engagement 2021

Work as we know it is changing, and employers must adapt their employee engagement strategies to keep up. Implementing all of the above is a sure-fire way to kick start things, but finding the right staff in the first place plays a huge part.

And that, we can help with.

Get in touch to discuss recruitment solutions by the expert team here at NLG today.