Employee engagement means creating the right conditions for all members of staff to be able to work to the best of their ability. Engaged employees are committed to their organisation’s goals and values and are motivated to contribute to organisational success with an enhanced sense of their own wellbeing.
What are the benefits of employee engagement?
Well, it makes perfect business sense! A study by researchers at Kingston University found evidence that engaged employees perform better than non-engaged staff, that they take less sick days and are less likely to leave their employer. Therefore, an engaged workforce is more productive, more efficient and profitable.
How we engage our employees
Now that we’ve highlighted the importance of employee engagement, we’d love to share with you some ideas that we have implemented here at The Stress Management Society:
Empower your team – When a new team member goes through our induction process, they are made aware that they will be given a responsibility, not a job. We do not believe in micromanagement and want to empower each individual to discover their own strengths, weaknesses and potential. We’ve found that this builds confidence, self-trust and gets things done more quickly too!
Encourage questions and feedback – We encourage our members of staff to question processes and come up with ways to improve the current way we do things. We strongly believe in the practice of ‘Kaizen’ and this means we constantly look for internal and external feedback, which allows for continual improvement. Every team member is always in a position to influence.
Open communication channels – We like to celebrate all successes, however big or small. If any one of our team members experiences a ‘win’, we all cheer. This allows each member of staff to see how their efforts contribute towards our collective success. It also goes beyond sharing successes; we’ve created a culture where we can all express ourselves freely. We have specific forums, like our Monday morning huddle, where we gather around and share stories from the weekend. More importantly, we use it to check in on each other’s workloads – to discuss what everyone has on for the week ahead and to ensure we all have the support we need.
Let yourself be seen – We’ve adopted an open, non-hierarchical office layout. This eliminates all barriers and allows for open communication channels. Our Chief De-Stressing Officer often walks around to catch up with colleagues.
Have some fun – Regular activities outside of work give staff the opportunity to interact with each other and get to know each other on a more personal level. When we go on team nights out or on away days, we always come back with new shared experiences and a renewed sense of positivity. The most noticeable effect is the increased camaraderie. It’s all of us fighting to defeat stress!
Effective communication is key
When considering how to engage your employees to ensure their wellbeing, it is important to think about how you can get the message across in an effective way. We have significant expertise in this area drawn from a decade of supporting our customers in one of the most important aspects of a wellbeing culture, which is effective communication.
Have a lovely day!
Sabina Darie
Head of Marketing, PR and Mischief
The Stress Management Society
