7 Ways to Increase Employee Engagement that Won’t Break the Bank

The project was in trouble. We were way behind in hiring a team to open the Florida market. Construction was a full month ahead of the people processes. The General Manager should have already been hired and on the job. Instead, the new HR Director was the first one hired, and his first assignment was to hire his new boss. After interviewing the final three candidates, he recommended a candidate he believed represented his vision for the market. Unfortunately, his new boss would have to relocate … from Southeast Asia.

On their first call to discuss strategy, both the HR Director and General Manager talked about wanting to do more than just rehashing the failed concepts of previous market openings. When the HR Director laid out a plan to turn the project around by creating a different type of culture, one built on alignment, partnership, and engagement, the two realized they shared the same vision.

Together, they decided to build an organization based on transparency, where their people would know not just what was expected of them, but of where they fit into the larger picture, how their results impacted the results of the market, and how to guide their own careers. Three years later, when his new boss was promoted because of the tremendous results the market accomplished by forging their own path, the HR Director and GM looked back on their results:

·         79% of their opening team had lasted a year, 72% had lasted for two years, and 65% had lasted for three years. Previous market openings had experienced upwards of 125% turnover in the first year.

·         The market had been projected to rank no higher than the 50^th percentile in the U.S. organization. Their actual sales results for the first three years placed them between the top quarter to top third of all domestic locations.

·         The market turned a profit within the first twelve months. Based on previous market openings, the standard was to not turn a profit for at least three years.

It goes to show that transparency and confidence in an organization can inspire employees to be engaged—meaning the degree to which employees consistently and willingly commits discretionary energy to ensuring the organization’s long-term success and well-being.

While recent surveys show engagement is getting better, the overall picture is still rather disappointing. According to Gallup data, in 2015, only about 34% of U.S. workers, and 13% worldwide, report that they are actively engaged at work. Imagine how much more successful your organization could be if those numbers were reversed, and 87% of your workforce was actively engaged?

The need to engage your people’s head, heart, and hands is crucial to your success. This lack of engagement translates into more than just a shortage of fun at work. Engagement correlates with productivity, customer service, profitability, and retention. For example, organizations with strong employee engagement scores generate revenue growth at a rate 2.5 times higher than companies with lower marks, according to the Hay Group, a management consulting company.

Many factors impede meaningful employee engagement, but in the end, they all boil down to one factor … people work for people. When they leave, your people aren’t leaving your brand, more often than not they are leaving their boss. The only thing worse than an employee who quits and leaves, is one who quits and stays.

Unfortunately, even though we have been taught to think we can buy our employees’ enthusiasm and commitment, social psychologists such as Frederick Herzberg have shown money is only effective in the short term. Money rarely buys sustainable levels of engagement and the extra effort that comes with it.

The good news is that the factors that impact employee engagement are generally more behavioral than financial. To get you started on your path to an actively engaged workforce, here are seven things you can do to build engagement that won’t break the bank.

1.       Unlock the toolshed:  Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Trends 2016 report cites access to tools and resources as one of the most frustrating aspects of many people’s jobs. No, we aren’t just talking about physically opening the supply closet. What we are talking about is removing the barriers that get in the way of your people’s success. Tear down the organizational silos. Replace your stringent gatekeepers with partners who help propel your people’s success. The more barriers your people have to overcome, the more likely they are to figure out you really don’t want them to be successful in the first place.

2.       Invest your time and attention in you people: Stop multitasking when you are interacting with an individual. Your constant distraction tells your people that you have more important things to do than listen to their needs. Set aside time every day to interact with your people in their environment, experience what they experience, and help them find solutions to their problems. Display empathy to their struggles work with them to find solutions, don’t just tell them what to  do.

3.       Talk with your People, not at your people: How you engage in conversation and communication matters. Meaningful dialogues help people exchange ideas and grow from each other’s experiences and needs. Monologues only provide one-way communication, meaning your people’s voice is never heard. However, be careful, because in the pursuit of meaningful dialogue, it is all too easy to get trapped in a pattern of parallel monologues where each party is busy figuring out what to say next rather than listening with the intent of learning. Learn to listen, and to hear.

4.       Invest in your people’s development: Give them the tools they need to paddle their own canoe only after you help them understand how to navigate your organizational culture. With the right tools and resources, they can learn how to avoid the class five rapids while taking the path that best fits their career and personal goals. Invest in their development by helping them fine tune skills they may already have, and developing skills they never knew they possessed. Their development will allow them to guide your growth, and their career.

5.       Building safe, trusting relationships. Nobody will ever give their best to you if they have to expend all their discretionary energy trying to stay alive. Show your people that you are trustworthy, that you are fallible, that you are competent, and that you will protect their interests. Encourage them, and even reward them for risking failure in the pursuit of growth. All innovation requires risk, so allow your people the freedom to risk failing in order to find new reality.

6.       Reward them publicly, and praise them privately: Celebrate your people’s successes, and whatever you do, don’t steal credit for their work. When they need help finding their way or adjusting their approach, help them behind closed doors. Nobody likes to be called out in front of their peers. Show your enthusiasm in their successes, but maintain your composure in their struggles. Let them see how much their success means to you, and how invested you in their future. Your enthusiasm will be infectious.

7.       Align what you do with what you say, who you are, and what you expect: Nobody will give their best to someone who constantly contradicts themselves. If you say you value teamwork … value teamwork in all you do, say, and expect. Don’t say you value teamwork then set up systems that reward individual contribution. Nothing will kill your credibility faster than constantly changing direction, seemingly without rhyme or reason. Invest your energy and your resources in what you say matters to you. If your people will know what you value through your alignment, or lack of it.

There are many more than seven ways to engage your people without breaking the bank, but these are good start. Enjoy the journey and engage on my friends!

Scott Brown, MSOL, is the Founder Hardie Consulting, an  Orlando, FL based management consulting firm. Scott is a coach, consultant, author, and award-winning speaker who has successfully helped countless organizations learn how to meet shifting customer and employee expectations. Follow him on Twitter: @ScottBrownMSOL, connect with him on LinkedIn, visit his company’s website:  www.HardieConsulting.com, and check out his new book, Alignment: How to Transform Potential into Performance, Productivity and Profit, available on Amazon or CreateSpace to learn more about how to create a healthy organizational culture and highly engaged workforce.