Driving Effective Employee Engagement Strategies On The Ground – What Every HR Leader Needs To Know
Successful HR leaders recognise that employees can truly be the best asset for an organisation – and know how to initiate and maintain the right connect, ensure effective employee engagement and drive lasting impact and growth within the organisation.
They also understand that employee engagement begins right at the door – as employees step into the workplaces every day. This awareness helps them drive focused efforts to communicate with all employees, involve them in organisational decisions and demonstrate that they are valued for their contributions at work.
While it helps HR leaders to use these broad measures in driving employee engagement, specific strategies can be brought to educate and support line managers with engagement techniques on the ground. Investing in deploying the strategies and making available the necessary support and resources to develop these skills will guarantee better results and increased long-term effectiveness.
Presently we discuss the specific engagement strategies that can be incorporated and what HR leaders could do to drive and monitor them and effectively transfer skills to the line.
Aligning with values, beliefs and goals
Effective HR leaders recognise that employees need to be seen and understood beyond their job descriptions, and deserve to be inspired and engaged along their values, beliefs, talents and goals. This is a key principle in employee engagement and helps align employee performance and well-being with organisational goals. Also, it also drives greater affinity and engagement within teams and fosters high employee commitment to driving the organisation’s bottom-line.
Take it to the ground, but begin from the top
Effective and sustained employee engagement occurs only when leaders begin the effort from the top. Driving successful engagement requires that channels for communication, learning and support are available right through the organisational hierarchy and also advocated by leadership teams.
A great way to achieving this would be to tie managerial performance expectations to the quality of intra-team communication and engagement. This will empower managers to identify and eliminate barriers to engagement and foster necessary support within their immediate environment. As a result, they will achieve greater proximity with their employees and drive increased knowledge on the company’s systems, processes, products and customers. Needless to mention, these steps will maximise elements that drive improved performance, innovation and ingenuity within the business.
Identify the right managers
Many managers can groom their teams to plan, perform and deliver, however, only some have the capability to inspire success. Great managers recognise that their individual success, as well as that of the organisation, is strongly linked to employee motivation, task ownership and autonomy and take every opportunity to drive their employees’ skills and strengths forward. These encourage employees to actively seek ideas and opinions from across their co-workers and customers and drive more value – added contributions in the workplace.
Identifying such managers and empowering them with added skills to support, groom and mentor their teams will help HR leaders drive more efficient employee engagement practices on the ground.
Drive accountability among managers
While employee engagement initiatives can be steered by HR and endorsed by the leadership, it has to be noted that ultimately the success of the programme rests with the manager. It is, therefore, important that managers receive formal training along with all the necessary inputs to build and foster a highly engaged team.
Further to offering them the required training and transfer of skills, it is also important to drive accountability through periodic progress reviews. This helps managers to stay focused on their engagement initiatives and develop robust frameworks to drive learning, interaction and experience sharing. When these frameworks operate on a strong foundation of metrics coupled with frequent reviews and feedback, they help grow a strong and engaged workplace.
Keep employee engagement real and achievable
Employee engagement initiatives are most effective when set within the context of real and day-to-day issues and experiences at the workplace. HR and business leaders will, therefore, find it useful to bring the organisational vision to life and narrate it across everyday situations at the workplace. In the long run, this helps with embedding the engagement strategy into the workplace DNA and drive stronger alignment to organisational priorities.
Get creative across multiple channels
Strategically aligning communication across multiple channels can drive great value to employee engagement efforts. When deployed well, multiple touchpoints and channels of communication can help leaders reinforce their deep commitment to the employee engagement strategy and integrate the initiatives into the business agenda.
In summary, employees have always been an organisation’s best asset and effectively engaging with them can favourably impact the organisation’s vision and goals. HR leaders play a critical role in ensuring these strategies are well planned, and managers are equipped with the required skills to own, execute and celebrate these practices on the ground.
Driving Effective Employee Engagement Strategies On The Ground – What Every HR Leader Needs To Know
Successful HR leaders recognise that employees can truly be the best asset for an organisation – and know how to initiate and maintain the right connect, ensure effective employee engagement and drive lasting impact and growth within the organisation.
They also understand that employee engagement begins right at the door – as employees step into the workplaces every day. This awareness helps them drive focused efforts to communicate with all employees, involve them in organisational decisions and demonstrate that they are valued for their contributions at work.
While it helps HR leaders to use these broad measures in driving employee engagement, specific strategies can be brought to educate and support line managers with engagement techniques on the ground. Investing in deploying the strategies and making available the necessary support and resources to develop these skills will guarantee better results and increased long-term effectiveness.
Presently we discuss the specific engagement strategies that can be incorporated and what HR leaders could do to drive and monitor them and effectively transfer skills to the line.
Aligning with values, beliefs and goals
Effective HR leaders recognise that employees need to be seen and understood beyond their job descriptions, and deserve to be inspired and engaged along their values, beliefs, talents and goals. This is a key principle in employee engagement and helps align employee performance and well-being with organisational goals. Also, it also drives greater affinity and engagement within teams and fosters high employee commitment to driving the organisation’s bottom-line.
Take it to the ground, but begin from the top
Effective and sustained employee engagement occurs only when leaders begin the effort from the top. Driving successful engagement requires that channels for communication, learning and support are available right through the organisational hierarchy and also advocated by leadership teams.
A great way to achieving this would be to tie managerial performance expectations to the quality of intra-team communication and engagement. This will empower managers to identify and eliminate barriers to engagement and foster necessary support within their immediate environment. As a result, they will achieve greater proximity with their employees and drive increased knowledge on the company’s systems, processes, products and customers. Needless to mention, these steps will maximise elements that drive improved performance, innovation and ingenuity within the business.
Identify the right managers
Many managers can groom their teams to plan, perform and deliver, however, only some have the capability to inspire success. Great managers recognise that their individual success, as well as that of the organisation, is strongly linked to employee motivation, task ownership and autonomy and take every opportunity to drive their employees’ skills and strengths forward. These encourage employees to actively seek ideas and opinions from across their co-workers and customers and drive more value – added contributions in the workplace.
Identifying such managers and empowering them with added skills to support, groom and mentor their teams will help HR leaders drive more efficient employee engagement practices on the ground.
Drive accountability among managers
While employee engagement initiatives can be steered by HR and endorsed by the leadership, it has to be noted that ultimately the success of the programme rests with the manager. It is, therefore, important that managers receive formal training along with all the necessary inputs to build and foster a highly engaged team.
Further to offering them the required training and transfer of skills, it is also important to drive accountability through periodic progress reviews. This helps managers to stay focused on their engagement initiatives and develop robust frameworks to drive learning, interaction and experience sharing. When these frameworks operate on a strong foundation of metrics coupled with frequent reviews and feedback, they help grow a strong and engaged workplace.
Keep employee engagement real and achievable
Employee engagement initiatives are most effective when set within the context of real and day-to-day issues and experiences at the workplace. HR and business leaders will, therefore, find it useful to bring the organisational vision to life and narrate it across everyday situations at the workplace. In the long run, this helps with embedding the engagement strategy into the workplace DNA and drive stronger alignment to organisational priorities.
Get creative across multiple channels
Strategically aligning communication across multiple channels can drive great value to employee engagement efforts. When deployed well, multiple touchpoints and channels of communication can help leaders reinforce their deep commitment to the employee engagement strategy and integrate the initiatives into the business agenda.
In summary, employees have always been an organisation’s best asset and effectively engaging with them can favourably impact the organisation’s vision and goals. HR leaders play a critical role in ensuring these strategies are well planned, and managers are equipped with the required skills to own, execute and celebrate these practices on the ground.
