Engage Employees

Studies indicate that employees’ attitudes toward their job‘s importance and the company have the greatest effect on their loyalty and customer service performance. Generally, people are going to be more engaged when they understand the importance of their jobs.

People want to know what is expected of them. Clear expectations with proper equipment, resources, and skills are essential for employees to meet and exceed performance standards. Ambiguity or insufficiency in any of these areas often cause negative emotions such as boredom or resentment, which cause employees to focus on surviving more than thinking about how they can help the organization succeed.

Leadership is always about the relationship between the leader and his or her people. Employees want to know why their job is important (see bullet #1) and how well they are doing. Our experience analyzing employee surveys indicates that employees want to hear from their leaders, they need clarity (see bullet #2), and they thrive on feedback. We often read comments like, “What I really wanted to hear was ‘Thanks. You did a good job.’ As John Maxwell writes, “People buy into the leaders, then the vision.”

Studies indicate that employees need and desire healthy relationships with their co-workers, as well as their boss. People are social creatures and need the support of good relationships. A fractured relationship with their manager and/or co-workers cannot be overcome with perks to persuade the employees to perform at top levels.

Recent studies on the correlation between compensation and employee engagement indicate that compensation is a more important factor than it was five to ten years ago. Employees actively participate in improving themselves and the organization when they perceive they have opportunities for personal and professional growth.