How To Solve The Biggest Problems With Work Engagement

“What keeps you up at night?” is the perfect question for illustrating work engagement rate.  Ask this question around the C-suite today and you will hear the bulk of executives talk of the need to build, manage, develop, optimize and empower a high-performing work force.

Talent

It’s the most precious of all resources and the imminent time bomb that’s ticking away in the minds of all business leaders. For the first time in history, the supply slope of incoming workers is inverted. Over the next decade, population figures suggest that more people will be leaving the workforce than entering it.

That concern is no surprise to anyone that’s kept an eye on workforce demographics. But the difficulty with work engagement goes beyond the numbers.

Different expectations of younger workers and new skill requirements in our knowledge and service based economy complicate the impact of a rapidly shrinking funnel of talented workers. Toss in global expansion, virtual workgroups, change velocity and the continued pace of mergers and acquisitions and you have the formula that exacerbates the problem exponentially. Even with the writing on the wall, some organizations have been slow to prepare for the complex challenges that are brewing in our global economy.

So what’s the remedy? Part of the answer is in reducing turnover.

When people stay they don’t need to be replaced and the firm retains intellectual knowledge. When employees see their jobs as their business and coworkers as colleagues they are more likely to be emotionally and intellectually invested in your franchise and with it the temptation to look elsewhere for what’s missing in your environment is removed.

The secret sauce of work engagement is mutuality

In our competitive world, is inevitable that change will follow. For every new business strategy implemented make certain you have taken the care to communicate and reinforce the value of change through the eyes of your employee constituency. Use employees as role models and celebrate, on a large scale, individual commitment to the brand.

Not only will you ignite innovation and foster better customer care you will be creating the type of employee environment that today’s worker will call home for a long time.

What do you do to increase workforce engagement? Are your tactics bringing good results? Share them with us!