Why do Melbourne based businesses want employee engagement?

Human Resources Melbourne

What is engagement and why do Melbourne business even want staff with high engagement?

Statistics show that highly engaged staff are substantially more productive, stay with their employer longer, which in turn reduces turnover and replacement costs, and are happier in the work environment.

One of the best ways to measure how engaged staff are, is through doing an employee engagement survey. At Vitil human resource services, we firstly undertake a 'pulse check' which involves surveying staff on their perceived levels of engagement. This can be through simple surveys, talking to staff or even through focus groups, and is best measured every 6-12 months to see what areas have improved or worsened.

It is important to follow up on the results of the survey and allow time to target areas that have been flagged as lacking engagement.

How do you improve employee engagement in Melbourne?

Some of the best ways to engage team members is through different employee benefits that are easy for Melbourne businesses to offer. Interestingly, things like how 'green' your company is can be a trigger for younger employees to become more engaged. Studies have shown that staff respond well and are engaged better with management who give their time, donate money or show philanthropic tendencies. Both of these examples show that employee engagement is not always gained through financial benefits and hence, Melbourne businesses must look towards other methods to truly engage their employees.

Communication between employees and management is vital when increasing employee engagement. One simple way to do this is simply talking to staff about what is discussed at meetings between management. This doesn't have to be done in a formal way but cascading information down to all levels of employees helps the team to have ownership of where the organisation is heading – they feel more engaged with the business goals.

Other ways to increase engagement through communication could be greeting staff each morning, congratulating them on life events and even just talking about their interests. This helps to build trust and relationships within the organisation and eventually will allow the employees to build up their trust with supervisors, making it easy to discuss concerns or potential issues, prior to them getting out of hand.

Providing food for employees can build a good opportunity for management to talk to their employees in an informal manner, which is a good start to having open discussions. Many organisations that have consistently high employee engagement have weekly morning teas for employees – the minor cost of holding these is significantly outweighed by the positive outcomes for the company.

Small things like cancelling regular meetings can decrease engagement as it can potentially cause employees to feel they are not the priority. Therefore, if is it highly necessary for a team meeting to be cancelled, give employees notice and perhaps an explanation of why the meeting cannot be held. In addition to this, not following through on commitments can also decrease engagement as it makes employees feel you are disingenuous.

On the flip side, treating staff fairly and with respect increases engagement significantly. Individuals recognised for their efforts and achievements respond with being even more engaged within the work place as they feel valued and that their efforts are being noticed by management. On a larger scale, when an entire team is recognised for their efforts they become engaged as a group, ultimately leading to a greater level of team cohesion which can bring about a higher quality of work.

Overall corporate culture is not one of the key factors of engagement. This is because the corporate culture is the larger picture whereas engagement between employees is on an individual and personal level – an employee can enjoy the corporate culture of an organisation yet simultaneously feel little engagement with their team and manager.

Despite this, many executives of Melbourne companies believe this to be one of the most significant factors of employee engagement and hence, will focus on this when attempting to improve engagement. Consequently, it is important to look past assumed factors contributing to employee engagement look towards unconventional methods which will truly lead to having a highly engaged team.

Vitil Human Resources

Vitil's Human Resources Consultants in Melbourne are HR professionals who have experience of a vast array of different situations. We who offer flexible, reliable and affordable outsourced human resource support, where your team is the key focus. By outsourcing HR to an expert in HR, our experienced professionals can objectively assess your environment and your human capital needs, to further develop your businesses performance.

Contact us for more information.

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