Only 32 percent of employees in the US are engaged in their work, which means that not enough employees feel encouraged or believe their work is meaningful.
That’s, unfortunately, a very low number and something that needs to be fixed. How do you increase employee engagement, though? After all, if there was an easy fix, then every business would be incorporating the solution.
While every business, team, and management strategies are different, here are five proven methods to increase employee engagement.
Start at the top
When trying to increase employee engagement, many managers think about how they can make their employees happy. While you need to have that conversation, it’s essential to start at the top.
What can you and the other managers do better to make your employees happier and more involved? How can you make their jobs better?
The thing is, an employee might work at his or her dream job, but dislike coming to work because they dislike their boss. That’s a tough pill for a manager to swallow, but it’s also an easier solution if you’re honest with yourself about what you could do better.
Encourage flexibility and freedom
If you give your employees too much freedom and flexibility, then they won’t work as hard as they should. If you don’t give them enough, then they might feel overworked. No one said increasing employee engagement is easy, but the key is finding the happy medium between this balancing act.
You should encourage breaks throughout the day. Let your employees work from home every other Friday, or whatever you see fit. Allow your employees to come in later, as long as they stay later and (most importantly) finish all of their work by deadline. When work is getting done and your employees are happy, everyone wins.
Incorporate software
There are many ways to increase employee engagement, and one of those ways is to make your employees’ jobs easier and more efficient. Bosses and managers have to provide employees with the right tools to do their jobs if they want to increase employee engagement.
That’s where customer service call center software comes into play. As an example, quality call center software makes it easier for your customers to connect with your agents, which makes your agents more proficient and productive.
Certain software makes it possible for your customer service representatives to talk to customers on multiple channels, such as email, messaging, and phone calls. And it keeps all data and call history in one place, saving time for everyone involved.
Provide a good working environment
Providing a good working environment is absolutely essential if you want to increase employee engagement. Some of the ways you can do this are by expressing gratitude by telling your employees when they did a good job, removing fear from the workplace, and treating your employees like family.
Your employees should feel safe and comfortable at the workplace. And you need to do everything in your power to make that happen.
Don’t overwork your employees
Finding the right balance between making sure your employees are doing their jobs proficiently while not being overworked is a tough task. After all, if your employees feel overworked, then they might resent the manger or job and it could lead to burnout.
While everything is digital now and people can work at any time of the day, it’s important to set boundaries so your employees don’t feel like they’re on call 24/7. Whether this means not working nights or weekends or giving your employees random Fridays off, the choice is yours.
The thing is, quality can actually decrease if your employees feel overworked. Perhaps that isn’t intuitive, as more work is completed when employees work longer hours. But that could end up backfiring in terms of quality as your employees begin to feel burnt out.
There are many ways to increase employee engagement, but the five strategies above are proven methods that work when incorporated correctly.
