How to engage employees at work

You may find it difficult to keep your employees working to their maximum potential and this could be down to several factors that are affecting their ability to stay engaged. So how can you ensure your workers are happy and keep them performing at their full potential without taking a significant hit to the wallet and increasing their wages (which has been proven to be an ineffective method.) 

In this blog, we take a look at the top 4 simple methods you can keep your employees happy and engaged in the workplace.

Why it’s important to keep your employees engaged

Firstly, let’s cover why it’s so important to actually follow some of these steps and ensure your workers are happy. We actually wrote a whole blog on this topic in celebration of mental health and wellbeing day which delves deeper into this question, but we’ll be focusing mainly on one of the key issues: productivity. 

From a business perspective, employee productivity is easily one of the most important factors you aim to maximise. A loss of productivity means a loss of output, which can lead to reduced returns. How happy and engaged an employee is can have a direct effect on their individual productivity levels. In fact, in one study, it was found that some employees work up to 20% more productively when they are happy (source here.) This means keeping employees happy and engaged at work is crucial to ensuring a successful business.

4 methods of improving  employee engagement

Now we’ll take a look at a few simple ways in which you can make your employees happier, thus improve their engagement within the workplace.

• One simple way is to provide free hot drinks, snacks or lunches - this may seem like a little, but the positive effect of doing something as simple as providing fruit or tea and coffee to your employees can be significant. A little pick me up in the form of a free breakfast or hot drinks during breaks can make work a much more enjoyable and comfortable place to be.
• Paid breaks or additional breaks - although it may be a bigger task to provide paid breaks or an additional break. The effect this has may be worth it. An extra 15-minute break may sound like 15 minutes in lost productivity, but could actually result in employees working harder throughout the day and therefore make up for an overall increase in productivity.
• Offer flexible working hours and days - giving your employees that extra bit of flexibility, whether that be changing their hours or allowing them to work certain days, is one of the most significant changes you can make to improve engagement. Some of your staff will have children or the elderly to care for, and allowing them to fit work around their outside lives can make them much happier. Again, this comes at minimal cost to the employer as the same number of hours will be completed, but it could be at different times.
• Hold regular meetings and ask for feedback - this is essentially showing your employees that you care about them and value their opinion in the workplace. This can give employees a greater sense of responsibility which will drive them to perform at their best.

It’s important to remember that not all business can implement everything due to different circumstances and not all of these methods will be effective in your specific business situation, so you should experiment which works best for your current team. Which makes them the happiest and most engaged, without hampering productivity.

Employment with Prestige Recruitment

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Alternatively, for more about how we can help you find your next employees, please contact your local Prestige Recruitment office in Hull, Norwich, Leeds or Huddersfield.

Posted: Thu 17 Oct 2019