Employee morale is important. As business becomes global, reputation matters and a good employer are seen as a good business. But time and budget can dictate managerial attitudes and it’s all too easy to neglect good employees. Therefore, you need to adopt an attitude that opens up a meaningful dialogue with your best and brightest.
Here are a few tips to ensure that your company creates engaging employee interactions.
Build Trust
Trust is key to good communication in a working atmosphere. Once you’ve built open, honest relationships with your employees you’ll find issues can be addressed quickly. Trust builds understanding which in turn can help you identify competency and potential.
The best way to build trust is to develop personal, professional relationships with your staff. Time spent in one-to-ones is time invested. Staff will learn to trust you if they know that you understand their passions and career goals. In one-to-ones you can show personal recognition and help them on their way towards their goals.
“High potential employees expect as good as they give. Your one-to-ones are the best way to present your company in the best light to them. Stewarding their time at your business will impress upon them their place as an asset,” says Debra Lamb, recruitment manager at Last Minute Writing and Researchpapersuk.
Identify Skills
If you have identified excellent employee performance it should be clear that you need to capitalize on your findings. Studies have shown that while money is a major motivator in employee engagement, building skills is an important driver in ensuring employee development.
Taking an active part in their aspirations and helping them set realistic career expectations shows that you are prepared to invest in them. Taking action to ensure their expectations are met gives them proof of this. Therefore you need to demonstrate that they are linked to your corporate strategy.
Employee development is a responsibility that cannot be delegated. Showing personal interest is an important way to keep your high potential employees engaged. Their engagement should be rewarded with an opportunity to progress.
As part of a reward for helping employees attain their goals and improve on their skills, you can also offer a unique and engaging reward in the form of a challenge coin. A challenge coin is a small piece of metal, often shaped like a coin but which can be any shape, which is used to represent an organization or individual. At first, it was early combat pilots, then the idea caught on to the rest of the military. You can have them made with company logos and it offers a great way to recognize employees that go above and beyond.
Earn Respect
Through your one-to-ones and development programs you will have built trust, and so you’ll be well on your way to earning respect. But all the trust can dissipate rapidly if you don’t deliver on your promises. Delivering a good employee engagement program can help you earn respect.
Hopefully, by the time you’ve built a picture of your highest potential employees, you’ll have identified development opportunities within your company. There are many ways to help your team develop.
A simple way is to create meaningful skill workshops or training programs. If the budget will allow it then you can send you high potentials on courses which tie in with their career goals. Once you’ve taken these steps you should always debrief to understand whether these opportunities are as engaging as they should be.
“Training is important but not the only way to show employees that you’ve invested in their future. Some studies have shown that people are happier if they have a degree of autonomy. Think of your employees as future entrepreneurs and business leaders – these personality types thrive when given enough freedom in their career. You might offer flexible work options or present them with real-life challenges to give them the opportunity to work on their own initiative,” explains Gregory Harris, HR consultant at Draftbeyond and Writinity.
Improving Company Culture
Engaging with these rudimentary ideas will create a positive environment where your employees will respect and trust your ability to work for them. In return, they will work hard for you. An atmosphere of mutual respect and recognition of fairness creates a productive team. With an emphasis on creating positivity, you will display an infectious pride and appreciation.
About the Author:
Martina Sanchez is a regular blogger and marketing specialist who writes for Lucky Assignments and Gum Essays. In addition to her work she blogs on digital marketing and SEO.
