Enhance Employee Engagement and
Focus to Get Higher Quality Work Results
See also: Leading People
When a company employs people for the first time, they are usually eager to make an impression by giving their very best.
If so, why would some employees underperform on purpose after only a short period? Why are you recording low engagement scores in your company? It’s as if your employees take their skills and place them in deep freeze while going through the motions of work.
This article addresses how you, as a leader, can enhance employee engagement and focus on getting higher-quality work results. We will help you respond to those daily situations that seem to drive employees away from providing you with their best. So, let’s dive right in!
Understanding Employee Engagement
You can only know how best to enhance employee engagement if you understand what it is. Employee engagement is all about investing oneself in the job by being authentic and delivering work performance with energy, persistence, and passion. It’s something that you, as a company, can improve not only by providing good leadership and a functional workplace but also by removing obstacles.
Tips for Enhancing Employee Engagement
Here are essential things you can do to enhance employee engagement and focus:
Create a Functional Workplace
The first and probably the most important thing you can do to develop an engaged workforce is to create a functional workplace.
You can achieve this by investing in ergonomic office chairs and desks. Employees’ satisfaction starts with their physical comfort, ultimately contributing to their mental health. Employees who are constantly experiencing discomfort due to the wrong office chairs can hardly focus or feel engaged in their work.
However, when employees are provided with the best ergonomic office chair, they get proper support and comfort to work for long hours without feeling pain or discomfort. So, ergonomic chairs reduce stress and fatigue, boost mood and morale, and enhance employee engagement.
In addition to ergonomics, you should also focus on the physical aspects of the work environment. Some employees may be dissatisfied with their jobs because of the unbearable temperature, noise, or visual surroundings.
Employees who can personalise their work environment to make it feel like their own can be more engaged and productive.
Become an Engaged Leader
Creating a functional workplace by investing in high-quality ergonomic chairs and tables may not be enough to enhance employee engagement. You also have to be an engaged leader. Influential leaders know what to prioritise to facilitate employees’ success. Engaged leaders should be able to:
- Educate
- Listen
- Encourage
- Support
- Challenge
- Energise
As a leader, you shouldn’t be absent from work because this will leave the employees without direction and support. Similarly, it’s ill-advised to empower employees by providing them more autonomy and authority in their jobs if they are not qualified.
Engaged leaders don’t directly manage employees. Instead, they manage their performance. You contribute towards high-quality work results by providing the vision, the resources needed for success, and the standards by which employees are evaluated.
Build Trust with the Workforce
Leaders need to keep their promises and honour their commitments. This demonstrates that the managers have the best interest of the workers in mind.
Strive to be fair and consistent in making performance management decisions and applying personnel policies. You can effectively earn your employees' confidence through positive words and deeds. It’s all about leading by example.
Similarly, you can build trust and enhance employee engagement through transparency. This can help boost your reputation as an honest and trustworthy manager. You can be more transparent by explaining to the employees why they are important to the business. Other things you can do include:
- Sharing documents and data
- Creating a clear benchmark for success
- Ensuring the path to leadership is clear
- Communicating bad news more effectively
Develop Teamwork
Always focus on team objectives that rise above individual self-interests and personal conflicts. Be a leader who selects and retains workers who are team players. You should be able to understand that it takes only one bad character to impact the culture of your workforce negatively.
You can build teamwork by encouraging open communication, providing opportunities for team-building activities, and recognising and rewarding team efforts. You should also strive to create an environment that inspires innovation and creativity. You can do this by providing your employees with the necessary resources, tools, and training.
Focus on Feedback
In some cases, managers or leaders may not feel comfortable giving feedback, but it is crucial in enhancing employee engagement. Some leaders may fear defensive reactions from their employees. Also, they may be afraid of losing their friendship and loyalty if they give negative feedback.
Regardless of all such challenges, feedback is vital for driving engagement. Provide regular feedback, irrespective of whether it’s positive, negative, or constructive. Don’t forget to recognise as well as reward workers for their contributions.
Feedback is an important element for building a learning culture in the workplace. It can adapt to meet changing business needs. Similarly, feedback enables employees to take responsibility for their performance to meet new expectations.
Furthermore, most workers feel that feedback can enhance their professionalism as well as help them maximise their performance potential and work results.
Encourage a Positive Work Culture
Another thing you can do to enhance employee engagement and focus is to encourage a positive work culture. This provides a safe and healthy workplace. Make sure the workplace is free of harassment and discrimination.
However, creating and maintaining a positive work culture requires ongoing effort and commitment. So, you must continuously monitor the work culture and make adjustments where necessary to maintain a positive and productive work environment.
Further Reading from Skills You Need
The Skills You Need Guide to Leadership eBooks
Learn more about the skills you need to be an effective leader.
Our eBooks are ideal for new and experienced leaders and are full of easy-to-follow practical information to help you to develop your leadership skills.
Conclusion
In summary, enhancing employee engagement and focus is a course that involves several things, starting with an engaged leader. Building a functional workplace that fosters creativity, teamwork, recognition, and positive work culture can help your business get higher-quality work results. It goes without saying that a leader should expect challenges in pursuit of better employee engagement.
About the Author
The founder of Experteasy Darren's background in software development helped launch the experteasy.com.au platform, combined with working late nights and weekends before, this was mostly before becoming the father of two very crazy kids. With the onset of COVID and more working from home, he's since learnt a lot about office equipment, ergonomics and coffee machines researching and testing products to make working from home as comfortable and pleasant as it can be.