Employees are the lifeblood of your company because they are one of the essential pillars that help your business succeed. A business needs skilled management to steer the course and make decisions. It needs customers to buy their product or services. It also needs team members to produce the product that customers buy. Every part of this picture is just as important as the other parts. A business that doesn’t value its workers is setting itself up for failure.
A company that values its employees will make sure to take good care of them. After all, without staff, there is no business. And replacing staff costs a fortune! A successful company that wants to increase profitability needs to protect and nurture its employees. In turn employees take care of customers to create repeat and happy business.
A good measure of how highly businesses value their team members is engagement. If a business does not value its staff, the team members will pick up on this. For a company to succeed, it must engage team members and keep them engaged. Team members who are not engaged are not as productive as engaged team members, and they will either quit or perform so badly that they need to be fired. As noted in an article in the Ivey Business Journal, “employee engagement does not merely correlate with bottom line results—it drives results.”
The Ivey Business Journal article goes on to describe the “10 Cs” of Employee engagement as follows:
- Connect: Good leaders must demonstrate that they value and appreciate their team members.
- Career: The work needs to be challenging, meaningful, and create opportunities for advancement.
- Clarity: Effective leaders understand that their employees want to have a clear vision for the company. They want to know the roadmap to success.
- Convey: To retain your staff, you need to provide regular, positive, constructive feedback on expectations and performance so people know where they stand and how to improve.
- Congratulate: Many team members feel that feedback is usually negative. Teams need to be praised when they do a good job. Good leaders recognize this and follow through.
- Contribute: Engaged employees understand how their work contributes to the success of the company. So you need to make sure your staff are aware that what they do makes a difference!
- Control: Involving team members in the decision-making process gives them better buy-in and helps make them feel like a part of something bigger, not just a cog in the wheel.
- Collaborate: Create an environment that emphasizes trust and collaboration.
- Credibility: People who take pride in their jobs are better team members. Maintain high ethical standards so your team can hold their heads high!
- Confidence: Hold your company to the highest standards possible. Staff respond well to positive expectations. Team members are more dedicated when they are confident in the business.
How To Engage Your Employees
Employees don’t want to quit or be disengaged—people get a sense of achievement and self from their work. Most people will put in a sincere effort at a job that engages them! It takes some work on management’s behalf to continue to engage its team members however. One of the drivers of engagement of team members is recognition of good work. Employees also engage when they are given a chance to learn new skills. Leaders truly connecting with team members will also help to engage them. Giving employees a sense of control over their workdays engages them. A sense of adding to the overall success of the company engages staff. Employees also need to understand the mission of the company, and the way they each contribute to the company’s goals.
In this video, Ken Wright talks about creating a culture of Engagement:
We had an attitude shift around 40 years ago where businesses cut staff and reduced salaries to save money in very tight economies. It was like a lightbulb came on for businesses: “Hey! If we don’t pay our workers as much, we save money!” This attitude is still seen in businesses today, but we have since learned that it is incorrect. As Richard Branson said, “I truly believe that if you take care of your employees, they will take care of your business.” Team member satisfaction is still directly related to business performance, and employers overlook that at their own peril.
If you feel you need some help better engaging your employees, contact TMH Business Coaching today for a confidential, free, no obligation consultation to propel you forward. Also, please feel free to add yourself to our weekly coaching tips email!
