Communication tools work wonders for every organization, but often times they are not enough to keep the productivity level of employees high. An organization must encourage a healthy work environment by keeping the lines of communication open. Open communication increases employee engagement and will leave you surprised how work gets done quickly and professionally. Suddenly, projects will go by smoothly and meeting targets will seem to be a whole lot easier.
Employee engagement communication still remains one of the best approaches to raise the productivity of a team. To be able to effectively implement this, Management and the HR Team must work hand in hand to ensure the communication tools are in place and the communication strategy is veered toward employee engagement. When engagement is hampered, it can sidetrack campaigns, companywide changes and corporate strategies.
Here are 4 tips on how to keep the employee engagement communication up and running:
Listen to your employees. Get feedback and take action.
- An age old saying goes, “A great leader is a great listener.” Encourage an open-door policy between Management and employees where the atmosphere is friendly and non-threatening. Feedbacks are perfect for measuring the effectiveness of your campaigns or strategies, but feedback may be filtered when a team is working in a tense environment.
- Anonymity is an ideal feature to promote transparency and confidence from the staff. Listen to their needs, thoughts and opinions; you might be surprised to learn something new. After getting feedback from the employees, let them know their voice matters by assessing its feasibility to the company. Whatever you have decided, communicate your appreciation for their time.
Communicate opportunities for career (and personal) development.
- One of the main drivers for employee engagement is the feeling of being valued and involved. Companies must create a healthy working environment where there are equal opportunities, fair and respectful treatment, care for health and safety.
- Aside from these, career advancement opportunities are found to be a vital part for employees to be driven. When companies include talent management in their HR strategy, there is clear indication that they want employees to grow not only for them but with them. It does not mean rapid promotion. It will just help employees to know how their current responsibilities lead to career paths. This will build trust and indirectly help them identify the strengths they could leverage on as well as work on their weaknesses.
- More than the professional level, an employee will tend to be more engaged if the company promotes personal mentorship. Submitting or processing individual government forms can eat personal time of the employees, hence offering information to make procedures faster or directing employees to forms online will save a great deal of time. Pop-up help facilities for quick means of communication will further raise the level of engagement of employees owing to the personal care of the organization. In addition, promoting health and wellness is a good means to keep your employees healthy and happy. It can be as easy as encouraging people to exercise, eat healthy and stocking healthy snacks in the pantry.
- You may also put effort in advancing employees’ career through education, seminars and workshops. Good leadership empowers employees even if this may result them into someday leaving the company. As long as current responsibilities are not jeopardized, why not let them attend workshops during workday hours?
Clarify goals and their roles.
Sometimes, by needing to keep up with the fast pace of corporate life, employees tend to feel lost with their job. Work may be mechanical and they forgot why they do their responsibilities, hence being unable to make small decisions when necessary. To address this, take time to go to the concepts and answer any questions whenever you delegate a new task or kick off a project. You will likely spend more time explaining at the beginning, but it will ultimately save you time (and headache!) in the end.
Be human and get to know each other outside the office.
During lunch, why not take your employees outside, learn what they like doing on weekends and what they want to eat. After office hours, why not do something fun like play bowling or watch a movie together? These are just some of the ways to help you and also your employees to get to know each other on a more personal level. Make it fun like sports or even a happy hour at the end of the week. Just make sure that during these personal interactions, you let them feel that they do not have anything to worry about being watched or judged --more importantly, that there is no work in conversations!
Remember that effective engagement communication boost productivity. It keeps everyone up to date, avoids misinterpretation, and ensures the completion of projects on time and with ease. Most of these do not involve costs, rather just a regular practice in a human and personal level.
