Four Steps to Boost Employee Engagement

If you’re looking for ways to improve employee engagement, check out Mary Lahr Schier’s article in the current edition of Enterprise Minnesota® magazine. Based on a recent presentation by top talent expert Michele Neale, the article packs immediately useful tips into a five-minute read.

Neale points out that supervisors are often surprised when employees deliver defective work, incorrect priorities, wrong projects, on-the-job confusion, or worse, despite being given what felt like clear instructions.

The solution, Neale says, is to deliver a culture of problem-solvers through clarity and an intentional approach. Companies that do so outperform their competitors by 202% according to Gallup. They have reduced turnover, and experience fewer safety incidents.

Leaders, she says, can begin to achieve these results by mastering four key competencies:

1)  Articulate “the why” of your organization. Mission, vision, and value statements need to be explained and modeled by company leaders. “Employees want to be tied to a larger mission and be told why their role is important,” Neale says.

Explain how each employee’s work impacts the organization. They may be machining a small part or assembling a component, but if they understand where their work fits — who the customer is, why the specifications on the job are important — they’re more likely to see and call out potential problems before they become a crisis.

2)  Set appropriate expectations for employees and meaningful measures of success that connect “the why” with daily work. Leaders — from the supervisor level upwards — need to make sure they are measuring the right things and explaining measures clearly.

While every organization will have its own measures, they generally should be set for areas like on-boarding and training new employees, best practices, and team-based collaboration. Tracking them every day through a daily huddle or team meeting keeps measures top-of-mind for all employees, Neale says

3)  A focus on process is the foundation of effective engagement. Employees should know exactly what their jobs entail and how to do them in the safest and highest quality way.

Documenting and teaching processes — and why they are done as they are — is a good first step. Asking “is this important to the customer?” helps refine processes.

4)  Engage and coach daily. Providing employees with the skills and confidence to make improvements in their work is a key part of any leader’s job. At a basic level, employees need to understand their roles and have the tools and resources to perform them well.

Neale encourages leaders to establish a climate for regular feedback and opportunities for employees to collaborate with each other and supervisors through daily huddles. That makes coaching a natural part of the workplace rather than an uncomfortable correction. “The key is doing this daily,” she says. “Employees find they are learning by having other people ask questions and collaborating on problems.”

For more detail on Neale’s approach and the Leading Daily for Results course she teaches with Enterprise Minnesota colleagues, read the full Enterprise Minnesota® magazine article here.

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