Strategies to improve business productivity should start with boosting
employee engagement.
Employee engagement is crucial for any business. From the small business employing just a few people to the largest companies in the world, engaged employees can help improve business productivity.
In fact, recent research by Deloitte found ‘improving worker engagement can produce bottom line benefits for organisations. It can increase productivity, and deliver the innovation needed to thrive.’
But what is an engaged employee and what can you do to engage your employees and
improve business productivity?
What is employee engagement?
Employee engagement means different things to different people. For some, it means
employees are happy in their work, while others say it means they’re keen to do a good job.
For the most part, employee engagement can be defined as people committed not only to their work but align themselves with the goals and values of the company. They’re the ones who show up every day and get involved. Sure, it’s also about the money but they also believe in what they’re doing and why.
Deloitte notes ‘businesses need to be able to rely on their people. It is people who maintain growth, productivity and profitability. Yet the majority (60%) of professional workers in Australia have only ‘average’ levels of engagement.’
This clearly indicates there’s lots of room for improvement.
Show, don’t tell
While you can tell your employees what time to show up for work each day, you can’t tell them to be more engaged. You have to make them want to be engaged.
Business Australia, citing a recent global Gallup study, wrote:
‘The research, conducted globally, categorised engagement into three levels: engaged, disengaged and actively disengaged. According to Gallup:
- an employee is engaged when they are emotionally driven to perform
- an employee is disengaged when they do not have the passion and drive to perform
- an employee is actively disengaged when they influence the organisation negatively and act out their dissatisfaction by engaging in politics and undermining the efforts of others.’
A business will fail to thrive with disengaged employees, so here’s our top five strategies to help build employee engagement.
1. Role clarification
Right from the start, an employee who’s unsure of their role or position in the workplace won’t be engaged. Clarify each person’s role within the company, in writing. This should be made part of the onboarding process for any new employee and reinforced by leaders and managers during reviews or quality discussions.
2. Build it and they will come
Even though post-pandemic, lots of people are working from home some or most days of the week, if you do continue to provide office spaces for employees, make them engaging, inviting and fully conducive to business productivity.
If your teams are working remotely or part of the new hybrid workforce, ensuring they have the best office set-up at home goes a long way. If they’re used to a spacious, dual monitor set up with oodles of cloud storage space and top of the range cyber security, help them set up the same system at home.
It’s worth reminding you that, if your employees are working remotely, their cyber security should be top of mind to keep your business and systems safe.
Not 100 percent certain your cyber security is up to date? Give us a call or schedule a free consultation. We can help – whatever your IT issue may be!
3. Recognise and reward
Recognising your employees’ hard work, good deeds or even the beloved person who brings in home-made biscuits or cakes every few weeks will always be genuine morale boosters. A thank you email, a mention in the team chat or even a voucher for a free cuppa at the local café makes people feel valued and appreciated.
4. Communication and connection
If you can’t communicate face to face, utilise one of the many online tools. Some work systems, such as Microsoft, come with a built in communication tool Microsoft Teams. Even if you don’t use Microsoft, there’s many other tools available for your business to create an online hub where employees can engage with each other.
Connecting on professional and personal levels can help build strong bonds. And if you’ve ever worked with a deeply bonded team, you already know just how productive they can be for themselves, but mostly for each other.
5. Use technology
In the ServiceNow commissioned Deloitte report ‘Operating in the new normal’, a whopping 68 percent of professional Australian workers agree technology frees up time to do more valuable tasks.
The report went on to note 42 percent of employees spend more time engaging with people when technology is used to automate tasks. Not to mention, professional workers with greater access to, and use of, technology spend on average 6.8 hours less every week on admin.
6.8 hours is almost one extra day per week. How much more productive could your workers be with almost an extra day each week to do more of their own work?
When you reduce routine business tasks, employees are free to focus on more productive tasks, which will likely result in increased employee engagement levels. And engaged employees will improve business productivity. Especially when they feel valued, supported and appreciated.
The IT agency offers a range of services to suit any business. Maybe you want to move your business to ‘the cloud’, allowing your people to work more efficiently, whether in office or remote. Or you need a business-grade Communication Solutions to keep your data and communications running smoothly.
Whatever you IT issue may be, we can help. Give us a call or schedule a free consultation.
Social Media
- Every employer knows employee engagement is crucial for their business. But what is an engaged employee and what can you do to engage your employees and improve business productivity? Our 5 simple strategies will help boost employee engagement which will then improve business productivity
- Did you know a whopping 68% of professional workers in Australia agree technology frees up time to do more valuable tasks? And 42% of them spend more time engaging with people when technology is used to automate tasks. The team here at The IT Agency have always said using technology makes your employees happier.
