Nibletz Staff
Managing a small business can be a lot like being a teacher. You’re there an hour before your employees turn up and you know you’ll be sticking around long after they’re gone. You try to be friendly and approachable, you want them to know that you have their best interests at heart… And most of the time it’s great.
But there’s a niggling doubt at the back of your mind. An itch you can’t scratch. A sense that, despite your best efforts, you’re losing them.
Maybe you find that you’re having to spend more and more time checking up to make sure they’re on task. Maybe you have to break up one-too-many long conversations at the water cooler. Maybe you’ve asked them once too often not to have their phones out while they’re working.
Smaller enterprises tend to have a much more friendly and intimate relationship with their employees and under these circumstances, you could be forgiven for sparing the rod. You don’t want to risk damaging your relationship with them, but things don’t look good if you can’t get them back on task soon.
If you’re noticing a spike in off task behavior, employees taking longer than expected to carry out tasks or a little too much muttering among the ranks then many leaders will question their efficacy. That’s not a bad thing (it’s what makes you a good leader), but it’s important that you don’t beat yourself up about it. Rather, you should take the bull by the horns and confront the matter of employee engagement head-on before it has a detrimental affect on your business.
It’s not your fault, but it is your responsibility
You shouldn’t take off-task behavior personally but you do need to take steps to measure, address and restore employee engagement so that you can be assured of peak productivity continue to steer the ship in the right direction. It can, however, be difficult to find the right approach.
Here are some tools to assist you in restoring high levels of engagement amongst your employees.
Quantify their engagement
There are many ways in which you can quantify your employees’ engagement and involve them in the process so that is seen as a developmental tool and not just a perceived means of you checking up on them. There is recommended employee engagement software that will allow you to do this. This is usually done by collecting survey responses from your employees. Unlike employee satisfaction surveys, these use the MAGIC model of employee engagement. They quantify:
- Meaning
- Autonomy
- Growth
- Impact
- Connection
By measuring these factors which drive meaningful engagement, you will be able to quantify just how engaged your employees are, ascertain how well founded your concerns are and act accordingly.
You can use your employees’ feedback to draft strategies and action plans for individuals and the workforce as a whole and while their responses should be confidential, the data should still be used as a tool to hold them to account.
Provide opportunities for development
It’s hard to remain engaged when you’re not motivated and a great way to ensure employee motivation is a clear and accessible career path with regular opportunities for development and constant coaching. Not only will this give your employees something to aspire to and a reason for them to bring their A game every day, it will also show that you value them and are prepared to invest your time, resources and capital in helping them further their career.
By offering provision for all members of staff to develop and grow under your wing you will help to improve engagement and solidify your working relationship with them.
Create the right environment
Having quantified employee engagement, you now need to create an environment that is conducive to improving it. You’re already on the right track by using the employee data to formulate a strategic narrative that the whole workforce has a hand in. Now you need to ensure that you are constantly driving engagement through environmental and cultural factors.
- Give them a voice- Ensure that they have meaningful input in strategic or operational decisions in the business. This will ensure that they feel they have a personal stake in the enterprise.
- Offer support and coaching- Opportunities for development are very important but even more so is constant support. Employees need to feel they can come to you if they are struggling to overcome a task or rise to the next challenge in their development.
- Create a team dynamic- This will create cohesion amongst the workforce and dispel any sense of “them vs. you”. Regular meetings, roundtables, circular emails and teambuilding exercises are tremendously helpful for this.
