Employee engagement is something that all businesses struggle with. Every individual has different needs and different wants in a career. At the same time, there are different aspects of careers that will either keep or lose an employee’s interest at any given time.
Keeping employees engaged is something that business owners and managers are struggling with more and more these days. While a lot of it is up the employee themselves, there is a lot that we can do as managers, as well!
- Get excited about your business. If you’re not psyched about your business, why should your team be?! Make sure that you keep your passion as alive as it was when you first started out, and spread that excitement throughout your company!
- Share your vision. Surely, you had a clear vision in mind when you built your business. Spread that vision like wildfire. It’s important for everyone in your company to know why you’ve built your business, what you want to achieve, and how you want to achieve it.
- Get involved. Don’t just give orders from behind a closed door. Get involved with your business, and get your hands dirty! One of the best ways to keep your employees engaged is to work with them!
- Make yourself available. Make yourself accessible to your team. Develop a relationship with your team so that they know they can come to you with any questions, issues or concerns
- Invest in their careers. Take a genuine interest in the careers of your employees. Be a mentor and guide to them.
- Make team-building a priority. Team building is a huge part of employee engagement. When the workplace includes fun, friendship and camaraderie, employee engagement improves exponentially! Team building activities encourage trust, bonding and fun inside and outside of the office.
- Bring some fun to the office. It can’t be all work and no play! Make some time for games, outings, lunches, one-on-ones, holiday parties, etc. Most of the time, business is business, but once in a while, you’ve got to have some fun!
- Promote from within. Employees want to stay with companies that promote from within. It’s hard to stick with a business that hires outside management when you’ve put in your dues, just to see opportunities slip through your fingers. Promoting from within is a great way to reward and appreciate your team for their hard work and performance.
- Mentor your team. It’s not enough just to be a manager. You’ve got to spend time with each member of your team and be a guide and mentor. Help your team to achieve their career goals!
- Give them responsibility. When you give your employees responsibility, it shows that you trust and have faith in them. There’s no better feeling than knowing your boss has complete faith in you to get the job done!
It’s not easy keeping employees engaged in the world of entrepreneurship. Long hours, hard work and unpredictability make this career path a particularly difficult one to stay on for some. While we can’t do it for our team, we can help them along the way.
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