7 tips for keeping your employees engaged

HR/learning in organisations
1/6/2023

Engaged employees are the engine of your organisation. But how do you ensure employee engagement? Read our tips!

Certainly, a committed employee is a happy employee. But remember: a satisfied employee is not immediately an engaged employee. So don't sit back and relax if your MTO shows a nice score. Happy employees babble on, but they also outflow easily. Engaged employees have spunk and loyalty.

Employee engagement really goes a layer deeper than employee satisfaction. Engagement is about being able to identify with the norms and values of an organisation. Want to actively participate in achieving the business goals. Knowing that you can still develop yourself in the organisation, and will also find plenty of challenges on your career path there.

Why is employee engagement actually that important?

To name a few advantages:

  • Engaged employees are motivated and productive.
  • They are loyal to the organisation and therefore there is less staff turnover.
  • They feel better about themselves and have a high absenteeism threshold.
  • Engagement also radiates outward, so your employer branding flourishes.
  • Your customers will also be happy with an enthusiastic service provider that goes the extra mile.

After such a list, the question is probably burning on your lips: how do I make my employees feel involved and stay involved in my organisation? This can be quite complicated, especially in a large organisation, or a company where there is a lot of hybrid work, or from different locations. Luckily, we have some great tips for you.

1. Transparent communication

Engaged employees feel part of your organisation. They want to be 100% committed to the company, but they want to know exactly what is needed and whether it has an effect. It is therefore a good idea to distribute the organisation's key figures not only within the MT, but within the organisation.

Turnover, absenteeism rates, new customers, staffing: keep your employees well connected.

Emphatically invite employees to speak up if they have a good idea that will help them achieve the goals even better. Employees feel taken seriously and it may provide the organisation with new useful ideas. And last but not least: don't forget to celebrate successes. If a good result has been achieved, or a big new customer has signed up, let everyone, in whatever position, share in the joy.

2. Don't promise mountains of gold

Especially with the current labor market, it is tempting for an employer to portray a job and future prospects more beautifully than they really are. Once the employee has started working, it can lead to disappointment. Surely the golden mountains are not as beautiful as they were promised. Before you know it, the fresh colleague takes off again.

It is therefore smart to be clear about the content of the job and the opportunities for growth right from the start of the recruitment process.

An applicant is usually looking for a job that not only provides a good income, but that also suits personal preferences and offers sufficient challenges in terms of content.

3. Be inspiring

Do you have a good idea of the organisation's vision and mission? So wear it out and, of course, act accordingly yourself. Put the vision and mission on the website and let it appear regularly in the company's communication.

Employees who agree with the norms and values of a company are proud to work there. They become true ambassadors for the organisation.

In addition, it is also important that an employee knows how to personally contribute to strengthening the company culture. This is stimulating for employees of any age, but if you are talking about a Generation Z'er, this is crucial. It is precisely this generation of employees who want a job with an organisation that they can fully support themselves.

4. The importance of working together

Encourage teamwork. Let colleagues work together on projects so much. This not only ensures more interconnection. You also ensure that all the knowledge that is in-house is bundled, so that people can learn from each other and strengthen each other.

It is therefore a good idea to approach projects in a multidisciplinary way.

By working together across departments, there is a greater understanding of the work of colleagues from another field and the common interest in a good result grows.

5. Provide opportunities for growth

If you want to keep employees on board happily and ever after, opportunities to keep developing themselves are very important. Make a personal development plan and pay regular attention to development needs. Are there any extra tasks someone would like to take on, or is it time for a career change?

It does not always have to be about necessary training or additional career prospects. Some people don't need that, or are in a phase of life where there is no room for it for a while.

Personal development or mindfulness training courses can also contribute to greater happiness at work and a good personal balance.

6. Personal attention binds

No one wants to feel like a number with an employer. So make sure you pay enough attention, no matter how big the organisation is. Make the span of control not too big of managers and explicitly motivate them to pay a lot of individual attention to their employees.

One stay call can be a nice step in this. This call is the exact opposite of an exit call and can prevent outflows.

By occasionally with every employee (yes, even that satisfied babbling colleague who never complains!) sitting down and asking easily if there might be any wishes, you prevent dissatisfaction with sometimes small things from piling up.

This is a relatively simple intervention that allows you to keep people involved in the organisation.

7. Create a friendly platform

Especially in today's society, setting up a digital platform where all communication, training and information come together is essential to keep employees engaged.

An online environment is also ideal for keeping in touch with each other for a large organisation, or where people often work in exchange shifts. What's important, though: take your target group into account and choose carefully how to set it up.

Are your employees not used to dealing with systems and are they hardly ever sitting in front of a monitor? Then make the platform as intuitive as possible. If you know that the average colleague has trouble with complicated text, choose simple language at B1 level. The platform is meant to connect, and not as a complicated maze.

Need more tips to keep your employees engaged?

That works out well, because it's our daily work! Therefore, feel free to contact with us on!

Close notification