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The Art of Employee Engagement

The best chance for a successful company is to have engaged employees.   They can set the first impression, define customer service expectations and be the ones to influence the sale of your product.

Engaging employees has truly become an art and doesn’t happen by accident.  This is true whether you are the sole business owner or have many levels of management.  Anyone with direct reports must figure out the means to get their employees on board with the mission of the company helping them understand how the importance of what they do today affects their future.  An employee engagement program can start with some simple steps.

“Listen” and take an interest in your employees paying special attention to their career desires.  You can’t help them get to where they want to be unless you know where they want to go.  Have employees develop a career plan that they will share.  It’s an important exercise whether they are just starting out or in the sunset of their career.

“Ask” them specific questions about where they want to be in six months, a year and so on. Find out how the company may be able to help get them there.  From this conversation set meaningful and obtainable goals to review at least every six months.

Finally, “take action” and encourage employees to move forward towards their goals.  Perhaps they need some flexible hours to attend classes.  If you can afford to pay for training it will show that you see them as someone worth the investment.  Or put an action plan for promotion in place.  As your employees see how their work is contributing to their career they will feel valued and important. There will now be a link between their job and the bottom-line of the company.

Providing training for your managers is also important to keep them informed on the latest methods of engaging employees.  With the many generations now in the workforce old methods of engagement need to be updated.   As a result of engagement, some employees will stay at the company and grow with it.  But even if they don’t, they will be meaningful contributors while employed by your company.

For more information on this subject, checkout the Employee Engagement Network at: http://employeeengagement.ning.com/.

Written by Ted Saul, Sr. Staff Writer

Ted Saul is a business coach that assists with Business Plans and Project Management. He holds a master certificate in project management and has earned his MBA from Regis University. Ted can be reached on LinkedIn, TedS787 on Twitter or emailing Ted@tsaul.com.

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