Employee engagement is a corporate buzzword that’s thrown around in meetings and board rooms across the country. There are software, workshops, conferences, and motivational speakers who have built their entire business around employee engagement. And business is booming.
You may understand why pushing employee engagement is so popular when you learn that disengaged employees cost organizations between $450 and $550 billion every year in the United States. “That’s an astronomical number,” says Scott Hirsch CEO of Media Direct. “Truly mind-bending. And it’s a perfect example of how employer-employee relationships are evolving. You can’t just say ‘I’ll hire engaged workers then.’ Workers want to be engaged, they want to be with a company that empowers them. But you have to take the right steps to engage them.”
Take Control of Your Company Culture Advises Scott Hirsch CEO of Media Direct
“There is no such thing as an organization with no culture,” says Scott Hirsch CEO and digital marketing pioneer. Your company culture exists whether you want to acknowledge it or not. And, generally speaking, when you leave your company culture to develop on its own, you’re not going to like the results.
It’s vital that you take the time to develop a company culture that welcomes and empowers your employees, says Hirsch. 47% of people looking for a new job say negative or toxic company culture is the main reason they’re leaving. And since the cost of employee recruitment and training is much higher than the cost of retention, you should consider investing in your culture.
Company culture can feel amorphous, but it isn’t just about how people feel. It’s about how they’re treated. When you set up an intentional company culture around your core values and enforce that at every level, you’ll see a drastic improvement, says Scott Hirsch.
Offer Your Employees Ways to Grow in the Company
One of the major reasons for disengagement among employees is a lack of motivation. This doesn’t mean they’re lazy, it means you have not done a good job setting up a clear path for improvement and upward movement.
When people think they’ve gone as far as they can go, they plateau. And as time goes on, that plateau becomes monotonous and depressing, says Scott Hirsch CEO of Media Direct. To counter this, you can offer cross-training programs, continued education classes, and consistent performance reviews and career planning. Have your HR department set up career counseling and lay out a path for the employees who are interested in management. Offer cross-training programs to keep the interest of employees who love the company but may do better in a different department.
The first step in keeping your employees motivated and engaged in their work is to let them see the bigger picture, says Scott Hirsch CEO of Media Direct. Show them what they could achieve and how they could add to the company. Empower them to become the next generation of leaders in your company.
