Want to Know How to Better Engage your Staff?

The problem of lack of employee engagement is a huge de-motivating factor for every business and affects staff turnover and productivity.

The research on just how bad engagement is in Australia is shocking. The cold hard facts are, according to research from Gallup:

• Staff who are actively disengaged – 16%
• Staff who are not engaged – 60%
• Staff who are actively engaged a mere 24%

This is also supported by a recent survey from SEEK who found that only 28% of staff were actually settled in their job and not looking to leave. What is going on and why are these statistics so bad?

There is massive value in having an engaged, fully motivated team. Apart from being less likely to lead, according to Gallup, engaged employees outperform those who are not by 202%. That is an incredible difference and will add much more dollars to your bottom line as well as having a larger number of happier customers.

What’s the answer? In my experience there are a number of things that leaders can do to improve their team’s engagement levels and here are my tips:

• Recruit the right people into your team. To ensure you have great team morale, it’s important that you recruit someone who will fit in well with your existing team. They need to be willing to learn and be able to get along with your existing team members.
• Induct them thoroughly. Make sure you have a well-structured induction plan so you set them up to succeed from the start. They need to feel welcome before they start and particularly on their first day and first week.
• Set clear expectations. This starts during the recruitment process by clearly articulating your expectations to potential employees. If it’s too hard for them, they will do you a favour by opting out! You only want people who are willing to step up and meet your standards to make the cut. This continues all the way through their time with you.
• Provide thorough training. New staff needs to learn how to do the job properly otherwise, they will just flounder. A survey by Go2HR found that 40% of employees who receive poor job training leave in their first year.
• Communicate often. This is one of the biggest issues where if the communication is poor, then staff don’t feel connected. Keep people in the loop of how the store is going and how they are doing individually. This drives ownership right down to the front line.
• Make them feel appreciated. Look for ways to catch your team doing the right thing and tell them. Don’t just focus on what they are doing wrong, balance this with more positive feedback.
• Continually challenge them. Always look for ways to get your team to step up. Set challenging yet achievable goals (KPI’s), challenge them to learn new things, get them to step outside their comfort zone. Anything that helps them to grow is crucial.

There are much more ways to empower and motivate staff and it’s an ongoing challenge. But when successful you have a fired up, fully engaged team that will climb mountains for you. And that makes your job as a leader so worthwhile.

Roger Simpson – CEO, The Retail Solution and Author of “The Retail Solution” With over 35 years’ industry experience, Roger Simpson is recognized as Australia’s #1 Authority on customer ROI in the retail industry and as a global expert on staff coaching, customer service, and selling skills.