Employee engagement and loyalty

Editor’s Note: Here at Dispatches, we are always looking for ways to help our readers do things. For some of our readers, that means helping navigate the working world, for others, it means assisting in the ever challenging question, “what’s for dinner?” For still others, it means figuring out how to balance family life with everything else. In an effort to aid in all of these endeavors, we have collaborated on this article written specifically for our readers.

Recruiting a new employee is an expensive task. But the costs can rarely be avoided. So the best thing for you to do is ensure that you actually get your money’s worth.

Make employees feel engaged
By making the job feel like it isn’t simply interchangeable with any other job means you need to provide certain perks that will set this job apart from others. Employee benefits aren’t one size fits all, though. You have to understand what kind of demographic your company is going to be attracting. Allowing your employees to choose from a number of benefits might be the best way to go. An employee who feels that they have more to lose than simply their job is going to work harder at it. 

Opportunities to improve
Show you believe in your employees by investing in them through training and learning opportunities. Try giving some employees more responsibilities to boost their confidence and knowledge. Strengthening their skill set will make them work more effectively for you.

A focus on performance
Don’t be under the impression that employees don’t want any sort of feedback. If you don’t give them any feedback, then you both lose out. They feel that their contributions won’t mean much either way. You’ll lose out on the opportunity to improve their overall performance. And improving employee performance should always be one of your priorities. If you don’t aim to improve your employees, then recruitment costs really will start to feel overwhelming. After all, one employee at peak performance may outperform three other employees! You can increase employee performance with Six Disciplines.

Company values
People don’t like working for businesses that they don’t actually like. If your business can be seen to be giving back to the community, or working towards a greater good, then employees may also see the organization more favorably. They’ll know that their own work helps contribute to that cause. You should look for something that fits this description. Even a small business can support a charity, for example.

Loyalty
When people feel pride in what they do, then they also feel loyal to the company that they’re doing the work for. That is, of course, if the company is treating reciprocating that loyalty.  You can’t expect your employees to stick around if you don’t reward longevity and innovation.