A recent Gallup poll finds that 7 out of 10 workers are “actively disengaged” at work – they’ve checked out and are only going through the motions!
Customers have more options than ever before. They can acquire materials from numerous places at low prices. Technology advantages are fleeting. Your people can be your sustained competitive advantage – if they are engaged in your business.
Most businesses need all hands on deck now.
Engagement is contagious – it generates energy within the organization. Most of your employees want to understand how their work contributes to the success of your business. They want to get fully engaged with your business, to help your business fulfill its purpose. Those who work daily with customers or with your products and services are often anxious to share their ideas.
Provide a forum to propose and discuss ideas, and to share knowledge. Offer incentives for ideas that improve the company’s growth or profit.
Teach your personnel about your business – where are your “sweet spots” of operational efficiently, how does your business make money? This strengthens their insight about how your business produces value for your customers and why they buy from you.
Help them learn to convert their ideas from the “language of things” (number of hours or items produced, quantity of errors, amount of waste, etc.) into the language of money (increased revenue dollars, reduced cost or inventory dollars, time savings in dollars, etc.).
Consider using one of these techniques to reignite engagement:
• Introduce a new idea or technology that disrupts the status quo and compels a response;
• Radically accelerate your speed to market or response time;
• Change the infrastructure, the rules or the flow of information to empower or quicken decision-making.
Engagement infuses your company’s actions with vitality, strengthens competitive advantage, and focuses energy to grow your business.
Do your employees know how they contribute to the success of your business?
What are you doing to keep your employees engaged in your business?
