Top Tips for Healthy Staff Engagement

Maintaining staff engagement in a large and complex organisation can feel like an uphill struggle. But, ideally, this should just be part of the culture of the organisation.  Let us take a deeper dive into staff engagement and look at some top tips for encouraging an engaged and happy workforce.

What does staff engagement mean?

Staff engagement refers to how committed and passionate staff are about their job and the organisation.  An Employee Engagement Survey by Custom Insight confirms that it is important to distinguish between staff engagement and staff satisfaction. “Employee satisfaction only indicates how happy or content your employees are. It does not address their level of motivation, involvement, or emotional commitment. For some employees, being satisfied means collecting a paycheck while doing as little work as possible.”

 “Engaged employees feel a sense of attachment towards their organisation, investing themselves not only in their role, but in the organisation as a whole.”

A report by the institute for Employment Studies

A report by the Institute for Employment Studies defines staff engagement as “Engaged employees feel a sense of attachment towards their organisation, investing themselves not only in their role, but in the organisation as a whole.” Defining and communicating the core values of the organisation can play a key role in establishing an engaged workforce. You can read more about this in our previous blog How to Communicate Core Values.

Why is staff engagement important?

There are many benefits to an organisation that has healthy staff engagement.  Overall, they will function more smoothly, there will be a lower turnover of staff, lower levels of sickness absence, increased productivity and efficiencies.  Research also shows that staff engagement has a direct impact on revenue. The report by Custom Insight states, “Engaged employees look at the whole of the company and understand their purpose, where, and how they fit in. This leads to better decision-making. Organisations with an engaged workforce outperform their competition. They have a higher earnings per share (EPS) and recover more quickly after recessions and financial setbacks.”

“Organisations with an engaged workforce outperform their competition. They have a higher earnings per share (EPS) and recover more quickly after recessions and financial setbacks.”

Employee Engagement Study by Custom Insight

Staff engagement should be part of an overall internal communication strategy as staff need to recognise there is an onus on them to read and action any important messages. Unmotivated and disengagement staff are much less likely to take notice of messages from the organisation, especially if they are already feeling overworked and undervalued.

 What are the barriers to staff engagement?

Whilst it is clear that staff engagement is important to the overall success of an organisation, there are still many that get it wrong. Employee engagement: a review of current thinking details some key barriers to staff engagement, which include:

• Job insecurity
• Unfairness
• Repetitive work
• Highly stressful jobs
• Lack of flexibility
• Poor management
• Bullying
• Long hours with few breaks

For high-pressure industries like healthcare, if these barriers are not addressed and resolved it can lead to a high turnover of staff and, ultimately, mistakes start to get made. Hazel Gleed, Deputy Divisional Manager at an NHS Trust, recognises this, “there can be real patient safety issues and/or staff morale issues if staff do not feel engaged, or listened to.”

Top tips for healthy staff engagement

How staff are kept engaged can vary depending on the organisation and the industry.  For instance, a company of four people, who all work closely together, is likely to be quite easy to engage and motivate. In healthcare, where the organisations have thousands of employees, with varying methods of communication across wide geographies, it can present much more of a challenge.  However, there are some common themes across all organisations for healthy staff engagement.

• Get your internal communications right. An Internal Communications Specialist who wished to remain anonymous says “bad internal comms mean that staff engagement suffers. If you speak down to your staff or send emails in all caps or red font, then you lose out on the chance to really engage with and have a discussion with your staff. Remember, staff are your biggest cheerleaders – or at least they should be – so how you go about your internal comms really matters. If you have fantastic external comms but poor internal ones, something will break.”

• Allow two-way communication. When a communication is sent out there needs to be a method for staff to follow up to ask questions, gain clarity or feedback. This can be as easy as including an email for queries or a staff member they can go to. Such a simple solution, but it is often overlooked.

• Regular company briefings, team meetings, and 1-1s. Having regular touchpoints for staff can help them to feel engaged. Company briefings at set times of the year ensure all staff are updated on company activity, changes, etc. Weekly or daily team meetings mean staff have allocated time to share important updates with their teams and scheduled 1-1s mean they always know they have the opportunity to air any successes or concerns and gain feedback on their professional development.

• Actively seek feedback (and act on it). Staff surveys are an excellent way to gain feedback and make sure staff feel that their views are heard. Organisations must act on the feedback and demonstrate this back to staff. Otherwise, it can just feel like a tick box exercise.

• Demonstrate core values. Leaders need to visibly embody the core values of the organisation. Staff will not respond well to a “do as I say, not as I do” mentality, so senior management needs to be seen to be leading by example.

• Ask the difficult questions. Even if the answer might not be what you want to hear. If there is a clear issue in the organisation, ask staff about it and how they feel it could be addressed. Their involvement in resolving it will help them to feel empowered.

• Be visible. “The most successful leaders I’ve worked with have always engaged staff at every single level every single day”, says Peg McGuire. “They get their hands dirty; they ask staff how they’d improve the organisation, ask for ideas, and listen.”

“The most successful leaders I’ve worked with have always engaged staff at every single level every single day. They get their hands dirty; they ask staff how they’d improve the organisation, ask for ideas, and listen.”

Peg McGuire, Communications and Media Strategist

• Reward staff. Any sort of genuine recognition can go a long way to ensuring staff feel appreciated and remain engaged and committed to the organisation. This could be as simple as a gift voucher for a job well done, through to a full rewards programme for staff.

• Consider their wellbeing. Wellbeing has become a bit of a buzzword for organisations.  It is great if a company genuinely puts the mental health of their staff at the heart of what they do, but if an organisation is just paying lip service, it can quickly become evident and alienate staff.  A considered, well-thought-out approach to wellbeing is required for staff to feel looked after and engaged.

Initially staff engagement can take time to establish, particularly if there have been problems in the past.  However, over time the steps taken to improve employee engagement should become embedded in the culture of the organisation. This makes it much easier to maintain longer term.

The right way to engage staff can vary for each organisation.  Viva can help to develop a strategy that is right for your organisation.  Get in touch now to find out more.

 References

“Employee Engagement Survey: What is Employee Engagement?”, Custom Insight, https://www.custominsight.com/employee-engagement-survey/what-is-employee-engagement.asp

Gemma Robertson-Smith & Carl Markwick (2009), ‘Employee Engagement – A Review of Current Thinking’, Institute for Employment Studies, https://www.employment-studies.co.uk/system/files/resources/files/469.pdf

Forbes Insights, “The Experience Equation: How Happy Employees and Customers Accelerate Growth”, Forbes in association with Salesforce, https://www.salesforce.com/content/dam/web/en_us/www/documents/reports/forbes-insight%20experience-equation%20final-report.pdf