Let's face it: organizations crave high engagement levels from their frontline employees but are often short of ideas on exactly how to accomplish this.
And the evidence is clear. According to research, engaged employees perform better, experience less burnout, and stay with organizations longer.
Therefore, not only does high employee engagement from frontline workers create a happier workplace and enhance the employee experience, but it also increases company revenues, employee retention, and customer satisfaction.
Patrick Lencioni, a best-selling business management author, once said, "If you could get all the people in the organization rowing in the same direction, you could dominate any industry, in any market, against any competition, at any time."
But what exactly are the drivers of employee engagement?
Let's answer this question by exploring some employee engagement strategies that are essential to the growth of an organization.
One of the most important aspects of a business is the mission statement.
A mission statement communicates to frontline workers and leaders what their purpose is for doing their work. It's one thing to have a company mission statement (and if you still need a mission statement, consider making one!). Still, it's another thing to practice your company mission statement on a daily basis.
If you want to increase engagement levels with your frontline workers, consider consistently sharing your organization's mission statement to keep everyone aligned with its core principles. Sharing and reinforcing the mission statement allows frontline workers to be reminded of the higher purpose for their day-to-day tasks and reinvigorate meaning and impact within even the most mundane tasks.
Connecting frontline employees between an organization's mission statement and their day-to-day contributing work helps increase employee engagement.
Take it one step further by giving specific examples of when people on the frontline are living out the mission statement and highlighting the impact that it is making on the overall organization. Highlighting these examples allows employees to think of the mission statement tangibly.
By consistently sharing and upholding the mission statement, it ensures that frontline workers are cohesive and committed to taking the necessary actions to reinforce the mission and values of their overall work.
Nothing is worse than feeling like an outsider at work, and nothing entirely changes this attitude except for establishing clear and open lines of communication between leadership and frontline employees.
When open communication is encouraged in the workplace, it builds pride within the organization and develops trust in leadership. Frequent and transparent communication helps to unite workers and leadership so that both parties feel respected and heard.
Be diligent about keeping employees at all levels informed about organizational priorities, objectives, and progress. This information helps employees feel directly involved in the bigger picture and thus increases employee engagement.
Sometimes employees can be bombarded with things they need to do better, and it is refreshing to celebrate company success with those who directly made the success possible. It's heartwarming to share success stories with frontline employees to voice employee appreciation and promote recognition. Other things to consider sharing include revenue records or company milestones.
Leaders can share stories and testimonials that describe examples of mission and value-based behaviors by having an established frontline communication strategy that fosters a sense of open communication. Not only will the employee feel appreciated for the recognition, but it also communicates to everyone that this behavior is noticed.
Research consistently shows that when employees feel seen and heard, engagement levels and employee satisfaction increases. Establishing this emotional connection allows employees to feel valued, increases retention rates for the organization, and thus overall engagement. Most importantly, invite employee feedback and provide a two-way dialogue mechanism.
A great way to establish a solid frontline communication strategy is through goHappy, where you can directly connect with your frontline employees to improve communication, increase engagement, and get feedback.
When individuals witness how the organization values engagement as a desired quality in leadership, it will inspire others to become more engaged in their work.
A helpful way to build this repertoire is to provide frontline leaders with a feedback mechanism for identifying and understanding areas for improvement and suggestions for self-development.
Frontline leaders should aim to gather feedback from their frontline employees and practice actively listening to this feedback. To actively listen means to be fully present with the speaker, not interrupting, and asking questions to show interest and curiosity. Finally, it is important to take action based on this feedback, to demonstrate your strong leadership capabilities with your actions more than just your words.
When engaging in a feedback mechanism, it becomes essential that a leader is willing to accept constructive criticism and demonstrates the ability to self-reflect. The demonstration of these traits will send a ripple effect into the rest of the organization.
When establishing a feedback mechanism, goHappy is an exceptionally valuable tool for building this bridge of communication.
To increase employee engagement for frontline workers, it becomes vital to have a tangible way to measure this level of engagement.
It is one thing to tell an employee to "be more engaged." Still, the message may only be properly communicated if tangible benchmarks measure the engagement that frontline workers can strive to fulfill.
So, first, you will need to establish engagement as a core responsibility and accountability for frontline leaders.
One way to obtain these tangible results is by conducting periodic employee engagement surveys to gauge employees' perceptions of their experience and engagement levels.
A pulse survey is another great way to do this. A pulse survey, as the name implies, essentially checks the pulse of an organization. It is a short and regular set of questions sent to employees to gauge the general vibe of the organization at a given time. They could relate to job-related rules, communication, relationships, or overall work environment experience. Not only do they allow for leadership access to valuable data, but they also allow workers to feel as though their opinion and observations matter.
Additionally, you can provide frontline leaders with survey feedback to prioritize areas for improvement and establish personal development plans.
Furthermore, establish an employee experience and engagement index to track and compare business units and set priorities and accountability for improvement.
In the wake of the Great Resignation in the United States, having a happy and engaged frontline team with stable levels of job satisfaction is more important than ever. Essential workers crave to feel valued in the workplace, and it all starts with having a stellar focus on organization-led engagement of your frontline employees.
More importantly, it has the potential to have a positive impact on long-term business outcomes.
Organizational health is the most significant competitive advantage you could create within any business. So, why not start building this today through increased employee engagement?
goHappy can be a simple and easy-to-use frontline employee communication tool to streamline communications and help empower HR and organizational leadership to have their workers feel more valued and connected and thus more engaged.
If you want more information about practical ways to engage and retain top talent or frontline engagement solutions, look no further than goHappy. We have compiled a unique engagement checklist to help you accomplish just this.