October 31, 2014
In the tech industry, buzzwords and “buzz-phrases”come and go almost daily. But one that’s starting to show some strong staying power is the term “employee engagement.”"
It basically boils down to the idea that if you keep your employees interested or ‘engaged’ in what they’re doing for you at work, you’ll have a better chance of retaining the people in whom you’ve invested so much time and money. It’s an idea worth pursuing, and one way to do that is to build trust with your staff.
That’s the idea behind a blog post by Scott Ence, a Human Resources “Business Partner” at inContact, the company whose cloud solutions “help you keep pace with your customers while building memorable and lasting relationships with them.”
Ence notes in a recent blog post that “Successful companies achieve great results—and provide tremendous customer service—through their engaged employees.” In his study of the topic, he has reached two strong conclusions:
1 — An alternative definition of employee engagement could be “discretionary effort,” or, more simply, “going above and beyond.”
2 — Disengaged employees stay as long as they can get, while engaged employees stay as long as they can give.
Ence takes a broader view and believes that fostering a sense of trust among employees can go a long way toward building a lasting relationship. To that end, he offers three ways employers can help foster such feelings and reap the benefits of having employees who feel that someone cares about them:
- Give Trust: Trusting others allows them to trust you, and leaders should take the first step in this exchange.
- Build Transparency: The more information you can share about your own ideas and initiatives, the team's objectives, and the company's mission and/or strategy, the better it will be for everyone.
- Commit Time: Leaders are often “too busy” for many things, but this is absolutely one thing you cannot skip. If you want to increase and maintain engagement and keep your team productive and happy, you must make yourself available.
It sounds simple, but sometimes the best solutions are the easiest. As Ence concludes in his post, “Trust is a common thread in great workplaces and great leadership. Build it.”
