How engaged are your employees? If your staff are kept motivated and challenged, either as part of the work itself or the culture your business is built upon, and feel valued, then there’s a good chance there will be high levels of employee engagement.
Similarly, if your product or service is something everyone believes in and can get behind, then it’s likely that engagement levels will be high and staff will work hard and pull in the same direction.
But what if employee engagement is low and staff appear to lack motivation? Here’s how to improve employee engagement.
How to keep employees engaged and motivated
Keep conversations open
A regular and open dialogue between management and staff should be the first consideration for any business owner looking to improve employee engagement – how are you meant to know how employees are feeling about working for your business if you never ask them?
This can be done through one-to-one interviews, open forums, or anonymous questionnaires, but whichever system you choose, the most important thing is that employees know they can be brutally honest about their feelings without being criticised.
And once concerns have been voiced, you then need to make sure these concerns are addressed as effectively as possible, else it will just look like a hollow, box-ticking exercise and engagement levels will be lower than ever.
Promote self-improvement
No-one wants to feel like they’ve gone as far as they can in a job – as soon as that feeling kicks in then it’s time to look elsewhere. Investing in your people’s future is a great way to keep employees engaged, and show them there’s a very definite career path is a great way to ensure they stay with the business.
Carrying out regular personal development meetings, when employees and management can speak about career progression and where they see the business going, is a great place to start. This will have the added benefit of improving staff retention and having engaged employees who are the very best at what they do.
Offer flexible working
A good work/life balance is key to employee engagement – what’s the point of endless hours in the workplace if you have no time to enjoy time with friends or family? And businesses that show a commitment to the work/life balance of their staff find employees are much more positive and productive.
So consider offering flexbile working hours, including flexi-time, or the benefit of working remotely or at home. When employees feel their jobs fit around their life, rather than the other way around, they are often more positive about their life, both in and out of work.
And if you’re worried about how to keep employees in the loop if they’re working away from the office, a conference call is a great way to conduct meetings remotely.
How to set up a conference call
Conferencecall.co.uk is the UK’s simplest teleconference service, and if you’ve never used our service before, here’s how easy it is to set up a conference call.
In short though, you can set up a call in three simple steps:
- Set up your Conference call – Choose a date/time of your conference call.
- Invite participants to the call – Send all participants an invitation with your PIN, date/time and dial-in number(s).
- Start your call – At the agreed time, all participants dial in and enter your PIN to join your conference call.
The dial in number for UK landlines is 0843 373 0843 and for mobiles its 83000 and we also offer local-rate dial in numbers for over 70 countries – more than any other European conference call provider.
And as if setting up a conference call for up to 100 participants wasn’t easy enough, we’ve now introduced a few ‘hot keys’ to make things even easier!
