Employee engagement is vital if you expect your business to remain competitive in today's business climate. Nothing will destroy your competitive advantage any faster than a demoralized workforce. On the other hand, with an engaged and empowered team, you can always count on staying ahead of the competition.
Building a culture in which employee engagement is the norm includes activities that range from the very simple to the more complex. Fortunately, the simplest things often have the biggest impact and are the easiest to implement.

Valued Employees
Employees need to know that they are valued. While every business operator realizes the impact good employees have on the success of the organization, this appreciation is often not conveyed to the workers in a way that is meaningful to them. When employees don't feel appreciated, they will come to think they are viewed only as a body that is taking up space and will have no motive to go above and beyond the basic requirements of their work. This can lead to failure for them in their career paths and failure for the business to capitalize on all the available resources.

One of the simplest things anyone can do is to thank the employees for their efforts. This will have the greatest impact when you seek out individual employees to thank them for something specific. A good example is when you thank someone for staying over to get a rush order delivered to the customer on time. The best part of thanking someone is this: it has a huge impact but costs nothing.

Letting the employees know you not only value them as workers, but you value them as persons goes a long way also. Gestures like providing a good selection of vending machines in the break areas helps to send this message. A specialist who works vending routes in Ontario says this acknowledges the employees’ desires for a varied selection of drinks, snacks and meal items throughout the day. It also shows respect for their time since they can spend their break enjoying it instead of trying to track down something to eat. Many companies even use vending machines to make it more convenient for employees to get supplies they need to do their jobs. Examples include tooling, gloves, pens and other miscellaneous items.

Trust
Closely aligned to valuing employees in order to develop an engaged workforce is the building of trust. Trust starts with honest and open communication. Even if the communication is in the form of delivering bad news, employees will appreciate hearing it directly from management rather than the rumor mill. The building of trust also includes the realization that no one knows a particular job any better than the person who does it every day. Consequently, this is the person who can offer the most practical advice when it comes to continuous improvement. Listening to employees and implementing their suggestions when it makes sense to do so inspires an engaged group of people.

Continuous Improvement Teams
When members of the workforce participate in teams that are empowered to make improvements in a particular aspect of the operation, engagement is a natural consequence. By participating in a Kaizen or other continuous improvement activity, the employees come up with the improvement ideas and are instrumental in implementing them. Safety is an excellent area in which a team of this nature can focus. This not only helps the operation, but it lets the workers know that keeping them safe and healthy is important.

While developing a culture that leads to an engaged workforce can take some time, doing some of the simple and easy things can make a noticeable difference in a short period of time.