If you haven’t yet heard the term employee engagement, it’s a pretty sure bet you will soon.  The term refers to how closely aligned your employees feel to your company – how emotionally attached they are to the company, the brand and their fellow employees. The closer they feel, the happier their work experience – which in turn reduces employee absenteeism, increases loyalty, promotes your brand and improves overall productivity.  The science to back the concept up is impressive and the bottom line impact to companies is even more so.  To see how your engaged your employees are, consider the following engagement factors:

• Employee perception of job importance:  An employee’s feelings of worth and how their role ties to the overall success of company
• Clarity of job expectation:   Having clarity of purpose as relates to the employee’s role, and having the tools & skills to accomplish what is asked of him/her supports an employees' ability to succeed
• Ongoing, relevant feedback:  It is not enough to have annual performance appraisals; engaged employees receive ongoing, specific feedback as to how they are doing
• Opportunity for advancement:  In Dan Pink's book, Drive, the author talks about how important working toward mastery is in motivating people.  Employees want to stretch and grow, and having opportunities in your company for advancement will provide them the opportunity to grow and develop themselves
• Relationships matter:  Employees are human beings first.  As such, positive, productive relations that are built on mutual trust and support enable them to perform optimally and towards common goals
• Values & leadership:  When their work value system is in line with their personal value system, and that system is supported, encouraged and nurtured by company leadership, employees are motivated from within.
• Communications:   Just as family members care about what is going on within the family, engaged employees are more connected when they are aware of company direction, successes and wins – both large and small. 
• Recognition & reward:   A good rewards & incentive program is not only self-funded, but is aligned to company goals, is attainable (with stretch goals), is within the power of the employees to influence outcome and is built on the company’s value system.  If any of these elements are missing there is the potential for more damage than if no reward system were put in place. 

Implement any of the above and you’re well on your way to furthering your employee engagement.  You’ll soon be on your way to having employees who are in flow state – but that’s for another posting.

In the meantime, please share your thoughts & comments – what are you doing to keep your employees engaged?  Where have you felt most engaged as an employee & why?