Whatever your company’s business model and strategy, employees are the key to delivering on it. Are they fully engaged and focused on top level performance of that strategy? If not, the company not only risks falling short of its vision, but also losing its best performers as well as the value of the considerable “discretionary effort” all employees can choose to apply to their workday. Consider the aggregate effect of the loss of that much effort over the course of a week, a month, a year.
The interplay of numerous factors determine employee engagement, and while research is ongoing to determine which independent factors play the largest role, it is now clear that a sense of individual autonomy and group connection are among the key factors. Fostering a coaching/mentoring management culture and a strongly collaborative team environment are two key cultural routes to improving engagement.
Many companies are now recognizing the benefits of creating a “best places to work” model work environment, with employee-centered amenities and an environment where there is a sense of openness and even fun can boost creativity, and acting on employees’ input on process improvements can both improve operations and increase engagement and trust.
In some cases, employees may become actively disengaged, as well. If left to chance, toxic attitudes in the workplace can spread, leading to a range of additional problems.
Initiatives to build employee engagement and a positive culture can foster a host of additional, meaningful workplace advances, including:
- Collaborative and cross-functional problem-solving
- Enhanced recruiting and retention
- Employee pride and loyalty
Research from Best Places to Work, positive psychology, neuroscience and related fields reach similar conclusions about what works. Cultural Evolutions puts this research to use in forging a path for building effective employee engagement in any organization. We analyze your workplace culture, policies and management practices to develop a plan for easy optimization. While retention varies across roles and industries, we can find ways to improve yours.