As part of our Bee School educational series, we recently co-hosted an employee engagement webinar, “If Not You, Who? Cracking the Code of Employee Disengagement,” with former Fortune 500 business executive, best-selling author, and employee engagement expert Jill Christensen.
In this employee engagement webinar, Jill shared her four-step strategy to immediately boost employee engagement, why Beekeeper is a thought leader in the employee engagement space, and her passion for giving frontline employees a voice through better internal communication.
Key Takeaways to Increase Employee Engagement
When it comes to increase employee engagement, actively encouraging frontline employee feedback, adoption of team communication apps by leadership, and building and sustaining company-wide trust are all primary ingredients for better productivity and revenue growth.
- When employees are engaged, everyone benefits. This includes customers, clients, leaders, shareholders, and the board of directors.
- Build trust in leadership! Your CEO, not just HR, must own and champion your employee engagement strategy. This is a paradigm shift when it comes to an employee engagement strategy. When organizations approach employee engagement as a team, it shifts the dynamic in employee engagement from being there to give (genuinely motivated, invested) rather than just to get (showing up just for the paycheck), building a mutually beneficial commitment.
- Disengaged employees offer untapped potential and an opportunity for growth to improve profitability, performance, and productivity. When people trust leadership, they feel an emotional connection to the organization, and this encourages employee engagement and discretionary effort, otherwise known as “going above and beyond.”
Jill Christensen’s Four-Step Employee Engagement Process
- Get the right person in every chair. Hiring for a job skills match is a mistake; you must also hire for a values match. Individual values need to be aligned with your organization’s values. When incompetency and toxic attitudes go unchecked, it ripples out to the rest of the team.
- Create a line of sight (goal alignment). Employee goals need to be aligned with CEO goals. This demonstrates that what employees are doing every day matters, and strengthens employee connection with your organization, i.e. “we’re all in this together.”
- Build a two-way communication culture through platforms for employees to communicate with the rest of the organization—with each other and with management. 80% of employees globally use mobile devices to communicate. That’s why it’s critical to have mobile and desktop apps for them to communicate. Provide opportunities to speak up. Your employees have ideas about how to improve your business, what’s working, and what’s not.
- Lift people up! Create a culture of constant and sustained recognition. People want to hear the words, “thank you.” And the best part? It’s free! This can also be leveraged as an opportunity for brainstorming and debriefing after an event or large project.
Discover how Beekeeper helps the Watergate Hotel’s employees stay engaged and informed.
The bottom line? In order to re-engage your employees, you need to understand and fulfill their basic human needs. Make the commitment to start the conversation about moving beyond traditional approaches to employee engagement with an internal communication solution.
