Strengthening Employee Engagement

Originally printed in the Guelph Business Venture Magazine - April 2010
While employee satisfaction and engagement has been a topic on many human resources professionals’ minds over the past few years, it is only now starting to be considered by company owners and operators. Many employers are starting to see that successful organizations are the ones that ensure employee growth and satisfaction, not just those that hire the right candidates.

Effective human resource management and planning is required throughout the employees’ life cycle with the organization to encourage employee growth and success. Satisfying and engaging employees not only encourage critical thinking and heightened creativity; it also produces a higher quality of work and optimized performance. Organizations that are able to effectively engage employees experience lower employee turnover, see increased customer satisfaction, have a stronger team based culture with improved performance and commitment to the values and objectives set out by the organization.

If your organization is thinking about employee engagement and how to integrate it into your culture, now is the time to do it. Above all look at the employees need to understand the organizations direction and the significance their role plays in reaching the objectives and goals of the organization. Additional questions to consider are: do employees take pride in the company? Are there opportunities for growth and is there an effort to develop employees? Do employees value their manager, and is there trust and integrity in the senior management group? Is there balance in the team and mutual respect?