The degree to which employees are engaged with their work at your company has a significant impact on how successful your company can be, and how much potential for growth it has. Over the years, I have found that companies truly committed to making their company a great place to work attract and retain the very best talent.
To raise your employee engagement levels, it’s helpful to find examples of companies who have already created great places to work. These companies often rank highly on the list of companies with best employer brands, a concept I’ve discussed before—companies that engage their employees enthusiasm, skill, and passion are companies that create an army of brand marketers who will attract more talent and growth to your company.
So which companies are setting the bar high for employee engagement? And what do they do to obtain such good results? Here are three examples of companies whose leadership understands the importance of engaging their employees and thus allowing them to reach their full potential.
1. Zappos
- Encourages employees to be themselves at work, including how they would dress and act if they were at home, so that they don’t leave a big part of themselves at home.
- Lets employees explore their talents and creative urges at work in order to discover what career paths might be the best fit for them.
- Provides life coaches to employees to help them set and achieve personal and professional goals, in order to find more happiness in their lives and pass that same happiness along to customers.
2. CLIF Bar
- Matches company culture of health and sustainability with employee incentives to buy eco-friendly cars and make sound home improvements (and give employees bikes if they want to commute that way!)
- Provides an on-site café for employees, which works with regional farmers to source organic ingredients, demonstrating to employees that their work has a direct correlation with relocalizing food resources and improving environmental and human health.
3. SAS, Inc.
- Provides on-site childcare, medical facilities, fitness center, walking trails, and other features to show employees they care about all aspects of their well-being, not just their presence at a desk.
- Creates opportunities for employee enrichment activities to enhance social connectivity.
What do all of these companies have in common? They care for their employees. They demonstrate in tangible ways that they take their companies values seriously and that they see the people who work there not just as resources but as human beings with needs and desires and dreams.
So how can your company take steps towards becoming a company like these? Assessing employee engagement through surveys such as the Gallup Q12 can be a great place to start, especially with regards to how employees answer statements such as “I know what is expected of me at work,” “In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work,” “My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person,” and “This last year, I have had opportunities at work to learn and grow.”
Once you understand how you rate in employee engagement then you can start developing and implementing ways to improve responses to these kinds of statements. The new methods and processes will allow you to find ways to recognize achievements, help employees grow, care for their personal needs, and in the process, ensure company loyalty and a love for their job.
If you don’t know how you rate in employee engagement, now is the time to start the process of understanding and improving the way employees feel about their work and the company they work for.
Image Credit: The Stock Exchange (www.sxc.hu) User: glanzerr
