Every leader wants their employees to be actively engaged in their tasks and in the business at large. Why is this? Engaged employees are productive employees. This helps create a more profitable company and provides employees with interesting and meaningful work. That being said, employee engagement can be difficult to inspire. Fear not. These tips are sure to help your employees feel more connected to their work.
Be Generous with Praise
Employees appreciate when their efforts are recognised. This encourages more open communication, and your colleagues will be more quick to offer their ideas and suggestions if they know that their leader cares enough to compliment them. If an employee never hears from their manager, they may wonder why any of their time and effort is worth it.
Take a few minutes to say thank you in person, or send them a quick email thanking them for their ideas and effort for a specific project.
Provide Interesting Challenges
Employees may feel stagnant when they aren’t met with any new challenges. When this happens, they find themselves restless and bored. This is a danger to productivity. Leaders need to encourage their employees to learn and grow. This could be by helping them set goals for each quarter or tasking them with learning a new skill. Don’t just assign them a new task or goal. Help them create concrete steps, and check in periodically about their progress.
Get Rid of Micromanagement
Employees are happy when they have some autonomy in their work. They enjoy having control over their schedule and tasks. While they still need guidance, leaders should not become micromanagers who plan every detail for their employees. Instead, they should demonstrate trust by letting employees make some decisions on their own.
Encourage Friendly Competition
Fostering friendly competition is another way to boost employee engagement and productivity. This not only provides employees with recognition, but also challenges them. Create a competition with a small prize for top performers. This doesn’t have to be anything fancy. Even a small token that gets passed from one winner to the next will still be appreciated.
Show You Care
One of the most effective ways of encouraging employees is for leaders to demonstrate that they care. This means that they need to communicate with their employees and be a good listener. Good managers will remember what their employees told them and ask questions about their lives. Although this sounds relatively simple, it will make a significant difference in how employees feel.
This article was originally published on JamesCrickmore.co.uk.