Employee Engagement /
Ford Business Consultants / January 2016
As the owner
or manager of a business do you know whether you effectively engage your
employee’s? Engaging with your staff equals a more productive workplace. Here
are some interesting statistics for you to consider.
·
70%
of owners and managers have checked off the box that says “very good” job of
communicating with their staff.
·
In
the same survey over 60% revealed that they do not measure the results, this
means they just hope it works.
·
In
the same survey 26% of employees indicated they are “not engaged” at all and
this suggests that there may be a disconnect between management and the
workforce.
What kind of
an impact does this have on your business? Disengaged employees lose their desire
to do a good job resulting in poor customer service which means lost customers,
less sales, staff leaving and poor morale for those that choose to remain with
your business. Employee newsletters or intranet may not be working as you had
hoped. You may be using the wrong methods of communication and you need to
revisit the way in which your company communicates with staff.
How to set
up an engagement program in your company
Start the
tried and true method of treating employees the way you treat customers, with
care. Smile and be sincere when engaging staff. When is the last time you
looked an employee in the eye and had a conversation or asked their opinion?
You will be amazed at the good will that comes from taking a few minutes to
engage! In a small operation that we work with, we set up a 15 minute get
together with everyone once a week. This method is direct and keeps everyone
engaged as they hear the important messages first hand. In larger operations we
have suggested an app for employees to stay connected. This allows information
to be tailored to different departments. Yes it can be a challenge when your
workforce is spread out or working in the field. Find creative ways to
communicate and engage with your staff. We often hear from companies and
organizations that suffer when things go badly and someone “drops the ball”.
This is a polite way of saying someone messed up. Ford Business Consultants can
put tools in place to assist you in minimizing this type of event. How often do
we hear in the news about a problem that festers and it always comes back to
someone not doing the right thing. We often see that this comes down to lack of
engagement. One of the Systems & Processes we like to see companies install
is “closed loop communication”. This is a verification system that when a task
was asked of an individual, notification is given when that the work was
carried out. This type of engagement
works and there is no wondering if it got done. This could be email, voice
mail, or a check mark and initials on a work order.
How to know
if engagement works?
We have
already discovered that most businesses do not measure results. Measures could
be employee retention, customer service satisfaction surveys and sometimes folks
it is just a gut feeling that yes we have more engagement and you feel it.
Businesses that have an “engagement program” and interact with staff regularly
are leaps and bounds ahead of their competition. Not only will you enjoy more
market share, you attract and retain talented staff that leads to be more productivity
and more profits. If we can help with this program please contact us, it costs
nothing to talk.
To your
success,
Ford Business Consultants
1-877-776-1059
