Keeping Employees Engaged Part 1

Can you ensure that you’re getting the absolute best from your team?

This is a big question all companies ask themselves. How do you keep your employees engaged?

In this two part blog series I am going to discuss why it is so important for your company and the teams within it to engage your employees and just how you can do that to get the best out of your staff.

If you can understand the needs, desires, and aspirations of your employees, you should be able to help them achieve their goals and dreams whilst at the same time improving their performance at work and ultimately influencing business productivity and profitability. 

Improving your employee’s lives and in turn, your business is the ultimate goal and should be part of your overall plan for your staff.

Tony Elwin, Director of Durham Hair Studio, Auckland explains that he sits down each February to find out the aspirations of his staff and to help them achieve their personal and professional goals.  

He finds that the process motivates his team and gives them direction. ‘If they want to take off a few weeks to go to Thailand, we encourage it.  If they want to undertake further training, we encourage it.  If we have a happy team, our clients see it and this is good for business and it certainly helps in terms of employee retention.’  

Remember that your actions should relate directly to your overall strategic business plan.  There is little benefit to you as a business owner to develop your team in areas that have no relevance to your business needs unless of course supporting employees on personal development will positively affect them in the workplace.  

We have now established that it’s important to keep your employees engaged, but the next question is: What strategies can you implement to achieve your employee’s personal career goals as well as your own business goals? 

I will answer this question my next blog where I will give my top pointers on what you can do as a leader to engage your employees and keep it at a level that is best suited for your company.