Employee commitment has become a winged expression. But what is the buzz word all about? How does a company achieve exactly this Employee Engagement and what does it need? We will get to the bottom of these and other questions in this blog post.
Employee engagement is a workplace-based approach that creates the right conditions for all members of an organization to do their best every day, to be committed to the goals and values of their organization, to be motivated to contribute to the success of the organization, and to have an increased sense of personal well-being (Source: https://engageforsuccess.org/what-is-employee-engagement).
Employee engagement is therefore primarily about making employees happy and offering them a positive experience during their work. Companies therefore place people at the centre of their activities. Employee Engagement can help you to find out within your company whether your employees are enthusiastic about their work and are committed to their workplace and want to contribute to the success of the company or whether they are just sitting around in the office. The importance of this topic is clearly evident, as various studies have already shown that happy, i.e. "engaged" employees are more motivated and thus also work more efficiently, which in turn has a positive effect on the company. Committed employees perform better, make customers happier and also set the company apart from its competitors.
But how do we achieve a possible high level of employee commitment? The company Engage for success has defined 4 factors for committed employees.
Source: (https://engageforsuccess.org/what-is-employee-engagement)
Now that you know these factors and have perhaps already integrated them appropriately into your corporate culture, the question remains how you can now measure whether your employees are "engaged" or not? The Gallup market research company has defined 12 elements that employees must fulfill in order to feel fulfilled and identify with their work:
- I know what is expected of me at work.
- I have the materials and equipment I need to do my job properly.
- At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.
- In the last seven days I have received recognition or praise for my good work.
- My supervisor or someone at work seems to care about me as a person.
- There is someone at work who is supporting my development.
- At work, my opinion seems to count.
- The mission or purpose of my organisation makes me feel that my work is important.
- My employees are committed to delivering quality work.
- I have a best friend at work.
- Over the past six months, someone at work has been talking to me about my progress.
- In the past year, I have had the opportunity to learn and grow at work.
If your employees are able to answer most of the elements positively, you can assume that your employees are already "engaged" and that they only need to adapt very little to the employee experience in your company. However, if many answers are negative, you will need to consider what means and elements you could use to increase employee engagement and motivation.
Where does ahead start to increase employee engagement in companies
The Intranet as a Service from ahead covers the two business relevant components technology and culture in one tool. With the various features and elements that are automated in the intranet, we try to make the employee experience on a technological level as pleasant and efficient as possible, for example by making it easy to find & share documents. On the other hand, the intranet serves as a tool to make the corporate culture tangible and to allow employees to participate in the culture and be integrated into it.
The Company Compass underlines the corporate culture, for example, with the visual representation of the company's values, mission and vision, and shows how the company's culture is put together. In addition, the individual values can then be linked in a news item to show that the values are actually lived out and are not just empty phrases.
But the news also helps ensure that employees are always kept up to date on a daily basis, so that they are always up to date with what is happening within the company. The commentary function gives all employees a voice and allows them to express themselves on various topics without being asked, thus integrating them into the culture. The "Stories" feature also gives employees the opportunity to share their experiences or questions with other employees.
With our latest feature "Quick Pools" we give editors the opportunity to get immediate feedback from employees. On the one hand, this gives the company the opportunity to quickly and easily obtain the opinion of the employees and, at the same time, employees can take a bottom-up position on popular topics and thus have a certain amount of say. Employees are thus allowed to express their opinion and have an active say.
In summary, Employee Engagement is rightly a winged expression in today's world. Employees have the greatest influence on the success of a company. It is therefore extremely important that they feel comfortable at their workplace, see a purpose in their work and that every working day leads to a positive experience.
