All over the world, organizations have to deal with low employee engagement. A global Gallup study
showed that only 15 percent of full-time employees are completely engaged in work. This means that
only a handful of adults are enthusiastic and energetic about their work and workplace.
So, why is poor employee engagement a problem? Poor engagement levels affect productivity and
profitability – everything can be affected on the margin including sales, marketing, operations – when
motivation “peters” out before the day is over. The Gallup study mentioned above also discovered that
businesses with higher employee engagement were 21 percent more profitable than those with lower
levels of engagement.
Here are some HR strategies professionals can use to improve employee engagement in the workplace:
1. Communication
One thing that most bigger organizations compromise on is communication. Working in isolation is huge
contributor to low levels of satisfaction this includes the home office but also can be just as important in
an office environment. Communications from management can go a long way to helping to rectify the
feeling of not being connected.
Weekly department updates, monthly company updates, recognition are all items that should go into a
concerted communication program.
2. Create a Healthy Workplace
You can have an environment with top-notch communication and engagement, but if well-being is low
and your employees are not healthy, it will start to affect their work ethics and progress. Soon,
employees will start to feel burnt out.
A healthy workplace can be created by focusing on and advocating for mental health. Workers should be
allowed a self-care day when they feel mentally tired. Moreover, the workplace should promote healthy
eating, along with regular exercise. To do this, make sure that the workplace canteen stocks healthy food
items and that there is a gym that workers can hit after work.
Creating a healthy work environment also means that employees should ideally have a balanced
workload. For larger companies creating this “health environment” can be challenging without a
systematic approach that can unify the organization. Solutions like OrgVision’s HealthView would be a
good example of organizational approach to employee health.
3. Empowerment
It is normal for superiors to micromanage in times of a workplace emergency. However, it should not
become a norm as workers start to feel threatened and may become indifferent to pressing deadlines.
Negative feedback and correction will eventually lead to their creativity being thumped. Soon,
recruitment will be affected as your workplace becomes known as suffocating.
Instead, try to empower your employees and gain their trust so that they can turn to you for guidance
versus the other way around. HR managers can help provide educational information on micro
management and potential pitfalls to not letting employees deliver based on objectives.
