Maintaining excitement levels can be difficult after you have initially hired your new employees. Sometimes it can be the workplace environment that they are stepping into which causes them to lose hope and interest in the company. This usually indicates some problems with supervision that management should look into. It could also mean poor relationships between employees and management. This article will look at strategies to help keep your employees as excited and engaged in the company as they were when they were going through the hiring process.
Leading The Way
Nowadays the saying is that you should hire for attitude over skills. You can teach a person new skills more easily than you can change their attitude. It is easier to change a positive attitude into a negative one if you, as the employer, cannot maintain a positive environment in which your employees can thrive. People can get apathetic and cynical, especially if management seems to be only taking care of themselves. If you want to fix this situation you are going to have to take action.
The first thing you should do is make some visible sacrifices. One example is to take a pay cut so that employees get raises and more benefits. Maybe you can hire back some employees that were laid off. Secondly, find your employees’ emotional connection to their work and take advantage of it. Figure out what would constitute their “dream job” and work towards offering the employees what you can to make their jobs more rewarding. However, it is important that you do not raise expectations by making promises you cannot keep.
Specific Strategies
One strategy in keeping your employees excited and engaged at work is by making sure that you have quality supervisors. Many employees leave their jobs due to their supervisors. Make sure your supervisors know how to create a positive environment – one in which your employees feel valued and appreciated. Another strategy pertains to the non-profit organizations as not everyone is crazy about working for this type of organization. The salaries are generally lower and not everyone is as invested in social or environmental issues as others. However, with the employees you do manage to get to work for you a good strategy in keeping them excited in this sector is to always look at the big picture (i.e. the jobs benefits to the environment, or the community or so on). Another strategy in keeping your employees engaged is by monitoring their engagement. This can be done through questionnaires or studies. It can also simply be done by watching your employees at work. Obviously the latter will only be doable if your business is on the smaller side. Finally, one of the most valuable and yet most overlooked strategies in getting engagement from your employees is listening to them. Hear what they have to say about their job and the projects they are working on. There can be a lot of insight and clues as to how you can make their job more exciting and engaging for them.
