Employee Engagement Strategies

If you’re still on the fence as to whether or not employee engagement has a real financial impact on your business, or even your department within a business, take one more look at just the low numbers I shared recently… Now it’s time to dig into some things we can each do to start earning engagement from the team members we’re leading!

I don’t care what your title is, you owe it to each person on your team to provide them with clarity about why the work they’re doing matters - who it serves, how it serves them, and why it’s important. Gosh, there are times where I need to do that same thing for Cindy - and she certainly does that for me. 

I can’t think of anyone I’ve ever worked with who’s been willing to give a task everything they have without believing it would make a difference. Without a sense of purpose, why would any of us go the extra mile? But with a clear understanding of how the work I’m doing each day can make a lasting impact on the world around me, I’m willing to put so much more energy into what may normally seem mundane…

Hey, I get it… What you and I do each day is different. But here’s where I’m going to challenge you: does that mean you believe what you’re doing is less important? I certainly hope not! Without being completely convinced that there’s significance in what you do, it’s going to be tough to let your team know exactly what role they have in achieving that significance… And doing that is just one step we can take in developing actively engaged employees.

It’s one thing to communicate a great mission or vision that the entire company stands for and is working toward, but being able to explain exactly how each individual on our team ties into that - how the tasks they do matter in the big picture - they’re not as likely to connect with our mission or vision. But when we can offer them that level of clarity, we begin to “establish a meaningful connection with” them and help them move toward “pledging to DO something” that helps the entire organization achieve the mission and vision!

Once we’re able to earn buy-in around the overall mission, we need to be very intentional about showing our team members that we appreciate what they do and that we value what they bring to the table - but not necessarily in that order. We’ll dig into that next time...