A simple way to engage people that won't cost you a dime.
Would you be satisfied if only 33% of your employees felt engaged in their work?
According to Gallup’s extensive research, employee engagement is strongly connected to business outcomes and is essential to an organization’s financial success.
And if you want your company to grow, an engaged workforce is what you need to run the ball to the finish line.
I was reading the Conference Board CEO Study that says elevating employee engagement has become one of an organization’s highest priorities all around the globe because employers recognize that engaged employees produce more and stay longer.
Culture and engagement are business issues. Deloitte conducted a 2015 study and found 87% of organizations cite culture and engagement as one of their top challenges. Obviously an investment in your people is an investment in your company’s future.
My concern is if companies know this, why aren’t they doing what is necessary to engage their workforce? Because I’m reading lots of studies and seeing a lot of offers from trainers on how they can help, but the stats are showing the needle really isn’t moving at all.
Why I Am Doing This
Employees make a critical difference when it comes to innovation, organizational performance, competitiveness, and ultimately business success.
But they aren’t motivated in a traditional organizational structure that heavily relies on management control and assessment after assessment that has no real meaning to them.
And people aren’t motivated by problem solving techniques that appear to be a waste of time.
To attract and keep creative, dedicated, and thriving employees who make organizations flourish, employees need to feel energetic and dedicated and absorbed by their work.
This says to me that something more is needed—a radical shift, away from the traditional problem solving approach for building and sustaining an engaged workforce.
Trying to produce more output with less input requires companies to engage not only the body, but the mind and soul of its employees.
Focus on the good, the true and the beautiful that’s already working in your organization and watch the light shine on the best your employees have to offer.
3 Simple Strategies You can Use Right Now that Won’t Cost You a Dime
1. The first step is having your workforce to independently think back to when they had a peak experience or when they were flowing in their work. Have them think about times when there were no boundaries between them and the activity or task they were doing. This is a time they felt energized and satisfied by what they were doing.
2. Discuss with them what was happening during this time and who else, if any, were involved. Have each participant share in what ways it was energizing. In what ways was it satisfying? Have them compare stories with each other. Listen and focus intently for any commonalities or harmonies in what they’re sharing.
3. Now ask them to imagine that it is 6 months into the future. They’re invited to take part of a project that is like a dream come true for them. You want each participant to share what is going on in their imaginations that keeps them fully charged to do their best work while they’re totally oblivious to the clock. Ask them what talents and strengths are they integrating into this project? What do they see themselves doing?
Understand Why This Change Method Works:
• Focusing on the positive is a surefire way to bring people together in a mood of collaboration rather than in an attitude of distrust.
• Talking among themselves about their work, the company and how they feel matters a lot.
• Co-creating a desired future vision from the collective, imaginative capacity for the type of company you want to have will prompt you and your workforce to immediately begin working toward that vision.
• Inquiring and discussing why employees do what they do rather than only focusing on how they can get better at doing it will inspire innovation and new ideas.
Working conditions like these inspire employees to be engaged, give their best, go the extra mile, and persist in the face of difficulties.
So instead of going the traditional route, using an outdated assessment to measure engagement that most employees say are boring anyway, create a live, fun, collaborative experience where everyone can get together and articulate what being fully engaged is for them.
This will help you to create the same conditions for further stronger engagement and higher performance.
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