SIX SIMPLE STEPS TO ENHANCING YOUR WORK ENVIRONMENT

Employee Engagement is the underpinning to your company's health and success. With it comes company loyalty, high productivity, and staff treating their function like a career, not a job. Without it, you can be guaranteed high turn-over (a realy revenue buster), disgruntled customers, and a really significant cut into your competitiveness.

An unhealthy company culture filled with disengaged employees can't change it's color overnight. And, of course, not knowing whether your employees feel disengaged is a head-in-the-sand approach that will only continue to erode your growth potential. A cost-effective company culture survey will tell you what you need to know. But to get you started in the interim, here are 6 simple, inexpensive ways to set a great foundation for employee engagement. They have been compiled from the overwhelming evidence and experience of human resource specialists and groups across the country, and will help you create and/or enhance your working environment to attract and retain those valuable employees who will then gladly be a part of your company’s growth rather than holding it back.

1. Say good morning every morning. If you do not visually see your employees every morning, leave an e-mail or voice-mail message whenever possible. Eventually you will get a fairly accurate reading for how your day is going to go by regularly checking in with all those employees who can affect your day, both positively and negatively.

2. Take notes regularly for good performance appraisals. Start a new habit this year and do not let a month go by without some specific notations from you, in some file or folder, about each of your employees’ strengths and developmental needs, when appropriate. One Caveat: If something needs to change, don’t wait until performance appraisal time to talk about it with him/her.

3. Meet informally more often. When you meet with your employees frequently, on an informal basis, a couple of things will happen: The annual performance appraisal will be much easier and not so nerve-racking – therefore much more effective, and; you will hear better ideas more frequently because you are creating the time and space (therefore the environment) to allow your employees to voice their ideas more easily. When we don’t make time in the day-to-day grind for high-quality two-way communication, good ideas don’t have a habit of coming out.

4. Surprise them once in awhile - on an individual basis – when deserved: Send them home early; give them something meaningful to them, and make it something they tell everyone about. Hint: It’s probably not money. One Caveat: This means you have to know something about them personally.

5. Ask them how their job might be done more effectively or efficiently and ask them more than once a year. Ask what you’re doing to get in the way of their being as effective as they could be. Ask them what would make them feel more engaged. Our employees really do have some great ideas. But you have to ask them. It will rarely be volunteered. One Caveat: How you react to their suggestions, and what you do about them, will dictate the likelihood of any future suggestions.

6 Let them know you’re interested in helping them grow - ask what you could do to assist. One of the best benefits employees look for when working for a company is professional and personal growth. And it doesn’t have to be very formal. Do they get an opportunity to work in other departments? Do you take the time to find out what their future aspirations are?

You might notice communication seems to be a common denominator. Many organizations say they do a great job communicating with their employees, and are shocked to find their efforts are not perceived by staff to be as great as management thought they were. Formal communication methods are important but your employees won’t feel like they are being communicated with meaningfully unless they get a chance to be heard! To determine if your work place communications are really as healthy as you think they are, honestly answer these questions:

+ Are your communications designed for a two-way conversation?

+ Are your employees regularly asked for their opinion?

+ When they are asked for their input, is it taken seriously?

+ Is your environment safe to express an opinion which might not be popular, may differ from yours, or differ from the way things have been done in the past?

+ Is your organization and are you willing to create and/or enhance your environment to foster high involvement?

Engaged employees want to be an integral part of your organization, and take a personal stake in its success. These six simple and easily implemented steps are a good start to forming the solid foundation for permanently improving your company culture so you can attract, and retain, the best and brightest of today’s work force.



To learn more about this author, visit Terri Benincasa's Website.

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