The employee engagement survey should help managers see what areas they need to improve on, but it should not stop there, the employee engagement program should be an ongoing development. Sometimes, employee engagement programs can fall short in this area and fail to provide leaders with tools to increase engagement within their company.Consider this: is your company’s employee engagement program a once a year check in, or is it an on going learning process to help the company better itself?
Research from Gallup discovered that only a small amount (10%) of people are actually naturally wired to be exceptional leaders. The research also concluded that companies choose the correct candidate for the leadership position 18% of the time, leaving a lot of room for error.
Quote Block: "Managers and employees must feel empowered to make a significant difference in their immediate environment. Leaders and managers should work with employees to identify barriers to engagement and opportunities to effect positive change." - Robyn Reilly
For a program to work, the ones implementing it need to believe in it and want it to work. Allowing your employees to have an input in the strategy can also help them feel involved and more open to the program.
How will you qualify your employee’s engagement? What level are you currently at? What is your benchmark goal? Having answers to these questions will help you plan your employee engagement strategy.
"Just 'improving engagement' will not be enough to connect with local business leaders and managers who drive the bottom-up work that must happen to be successful and sustainable." -David Zinger
Employee engagement programs have failed in some companies because they were not implemented correctly, leading to a stall in the engagement movement. It is never too late to reevaluate your engagement strategy, start by considering an employee recognition program today!