What are the main drivers of employee engagement?
Employee engagement comes from treating people well and is driven by the organisational culture and leadership. So the key message is, if you want to increase employee engagement then work on improving your culture and leadership. In our previous blog article on employee engagement to increase productivity we talked about how to get started. In this article we want to share some ideas about how to take things further, with a particular focus on organisational culture.
In a nutshell, getting your workplace culture and leadership right translates into your people feeling good about you as an employer. They then reciprocate with increased engagement, which leads to increased productivity, innovation and loyalty. We looked at best practice for leadership skills in our previous blog article on how managers can motivate their employees, so now let’s take a look at how you can improve your organisational culture.
Changing the culture
The organisational culture sets the tone for how the organisation operates and how people within it treat each other and is a key factor influencing how well the organisation performs. If you want to promote employee engagement then it’s important to foster a culture that encourages and rewards people for being fair and kind to each other. These are some ways you can change your organisational culture:
Values
A big part of what makes up the organisational culture is those shared values that guide the thinking and behavioural styles of the people in the organisation. If you want to shift the culture then you need to look at your values and how you communicate them. This is not just about stating your values. You need to explain them and, crucially, model them consistently so they become embedded. This is particularly important for those with responsibility for others – your leaders, managers and supervisors.
Wellbeing
Building wellbeing into the business as a core feature of the way things are done will go a long way towards changing the culture to support employee engagement. Protecting and promoting the physical and mental health of your staff demonstrates your commitment to them and they reciprocate with better engagement. Providing a welcoming and pleasant working environment also supports employee engagement and your customers appreciate it too.
Trust
If people trust the organisation they work for they are more likely to feel engaged. Building trust is relatively straightforward and is based on respect, fairness and credibility. People need to feel their worth is recognised and they get a fair share of the opportunities and rewards. It’s also vital that leaders, managers and supervisors are competent and make good role models. Get this right and the culture of trust will drive employee engagement.
Improving employee engagement – together with Cafe Therapy
In this article we’ve given you a few ideas to get started on improving employee engagement by working on your organisational culture.
Cafe Therapy can help you improve employee engagement in your workplace by partnering with your company to deliver enlightening and effective training and workshops, as well as helping you access, evaluate and act upon feedback from your people. Our thoughtfully designed presentations and activities bring people together and foster a spirit of community and co-operation and bring real results for your company. Drop us an email and start a conversation with Cafe Therapy. Find us on Facebook and Twitter.
