Now is a great time to review the principles you believe and follow in employee engagement. While each company will determine their own set of unique employee engagement principles, there are a number of key ones you must look to first.

Key principles

Involvement - Encourage employees to ask, “Why?” Questioning means involvement. When employees cease to ask questions, they cease to care. Effective managers know that when their employees are asking questions, they are thinking about their work and the company. Successful managers will also encourage healthy criticism and disagreement. They actively listen, and then ask for recommendations or solutions. Ownership begins with inquiries.

Specificity - Unfortunately we cannot sustain engagement all the time and everywhere. When we talk about employee engagement we need to ask: who is engaged, with what, for how long, and for what reason?

Connection - Connection is paramount to effective and lasting employee engagement. Authentic employee engagement involves connection to our work, others, and our organizations. When we disconnect we disengage.

Respect - When you give respect, you get respect - simple. When employees feel respected in the workplace and managers feel respected by employees it helps foster an environment of mutual respect.

Energy - For successful employee engagement organizations must pay close attention to mental, emotional, and spiritual energy at work. In addition companies need to enhance organizational energy through meaningful connection and high quality interactions.

How it affects your business

Employee engagement improves performance. Good employee engagement can be instrumental in improving both business performance and individual performance and satisfaction.

Employee engagement is here and now. Looking to the present, the here and now is important for effective employee engagement. Don’t wait for some survey results or diagnosis from a management consultant. Look at the work employees are doing right now and determine how you can engage with it more fully.

What can you do?

Download our free white paper on Employee Engagement now to learn more.