To run an efficient business, companies must have employees that do more than simply complete tasks. Any digital system can ensure that objectives are reached according to specifications, but human involvement creates results that are unique, passionate, and engaging to consumers.
In order to obtain this, you must have employees that are engaged, creative, and willing to go the extra mile to ensure projects are not just completed but completed with excellent results — putting your company ahead of the competition.
However, employee engagement is a hard thing to encourage. Statistics show that, worldwide, only about 13% of employees are actually engaged in their jobs, with America in the lead with 30% engagement. Even still, these numbers prove that creating a workplace that encourages excitement and involvement in employees is a true hurdle.
Yet it can be accomplished. Many leading companies, both in the world and in the U.S., have turned to tools aimed at boosting employee enthusiasm. Here are a few techniques and systems these companies have put into effect.
1. Rewards
While a salary is typically viewed as reward enough for a job well done, employees will often only invest as much as they’re being rewarded for. This guarantees you acceptable work within their allotted hours, but robs you of additional creativity, volunteered overtime, and emotional investment in the tasks. With the sales industry in particular, the tactic of offering additional rewards for exceptional work ethic and results made employees strive beyond the required level of dedication. If an additional bonus is promised should a project be finished ahead of time, should a client be won, or should a new spark of creativity be invested, employees will feel motivated to put in the extra effort. Technological tools and a big data database can help keep all of this organized.
2. Competition
In the same way that competition inspired us in our childhood games, a healthy dose of competition can motivate employees to work harder, work smarter, and work towards better results. In the sales industry as well as technological fields, having employees compete for monetary rewards as well as advancement encourages them to put in their very best. While investing the typical hours each week may be satisfactory, investing additional hours to gain a reward over a fellow co-worker or to achieve a promotion makes the additional effort appealing and gratifying. This also creates a fun experience for employees to look forward to each day.
3.Regular Communication
While some workers function better independently, having constant communication between the managers, the employees, and between colleagues will create a sense of unity. This community experience will make employees feel more accountable with their workload, willing to go the extra mile to ensure it’s up to their personal standards as well as their professional requirements. This also makes employees feel like there are others ready to help them if needed, eliminating frustration and bringing passion back into projects, which will inherently make employees more engaged in the day-to-day tasks they’re given.
4. Offer Realistic Short-Term Goals
People are designed to handle and solve tasks. Whether you are dealing with a team of workers or individual employees, establishing quotas, deadlines, and goals that are realistic and manageable will make employees feel more accomplished when they do complete them. This sense of accomplishment will create an energized feeling to take on additional tasks and exceed their quotas. Heavier workloads make employees feel overworked and will discourage extra effort beyond what is necessary. By establishing workloads that are adequately sized for the individual employee, with short-term goals, you ensure employees complete more over a shorter period of time, while making them more willing to take on additional work.
In the modern age, it’s more and more crucial for companies to have every aspect of their businesses working fast and efficiently. While the simple completion of tasks plays an important role, human involvement allows projects to be completed with greater results. The only way to accomplish this is with employees that are passionate, involved, and engaged in their working environment. With these few tools, utilized by the most successful companies anywhere, you can drive your employees towards being more excited and more engaged in their work.