As the pandemic quickened massive shifts in workplaces everywhere, employers across the globe have been asking themselves: how do I increase employee retention? How do I decrease employee turnover? How do I make employee recruitment a breeze? According to award-winning TEC Speaker Eddie LeMoine, the answers to all these questions lie within one thing: employee engagement strategy.

A Canadian-born international author, keynote speaker, seminar leader and corporate trainer, Eddie LeMoine specializes in leadership, employee engagement, stress management, safety, and success psychology.

Attracting and retaining talented employees is an employer’s dream, and Eddie is here to help you make that dream come true.

Struggling With Employee Retention? Try Building an Employee Engagement Strategy | With Tips From Eddie Lemoine

WHAT IS EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT?

Employee engagement happens around inclusion and co-creation. It means everyone gets involved—employees, leadership team, the community you work in, clients, suppliers, and everyone in between.

When it comes to employee engagement, we look for something magical called discretionary effort. This means that the work the employee does at their job is in alignment with the organization’s goals and the organization is leveraging the individual strengths of those employees to reach those goals.

When all employees are emotionally committed to the success of their employer, magic happens. Profitability happens. Cost containment happens. Safety happens.

BENEFITS OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

Engagement, enabling, and empowering the team you already have is the easiest way to add capacity and profitability to your organization. You don’t need to buy new software or find a new office space, you simply need an action plan to fire up the team that already shows up to work every day.

For employees, it gives them a sense of purpose—they are happier, see an opportunity for personal growth, and align their strengths with organizational goals. Only 15% of engaged employees would consider leaving their job, while 85% of unengaged employees would consider leaving theirs.

For employers, it makes it easier to attract and retain top talent and increases both sales and productivity. Engaged employees will recommend their place of work to others, which makes attracting talent more natural.

For customers, it increases satisfaction and referrals.

According to a Towers Watson survey for Fortune 500 companies: Organizations with low engagement have a 9% operating margin, organizations with highly engaged employees can have a 14% operating margin, and those with engaged, enabled, and empowered employees can have a 27% operating margin. What’s more? They can have 50% higher sales, 50% higher customer loyalty, and 38% above-average productivity. Source: Gallup

1. “WHY IS THIS JOB IMPORTANT TO ME?”

This is why employees join an organization.

• Geography
• Compensation
• Benefits
• Vacation
• Location

Employee recruitment tip: Bring new employees in at the right level of compensation immediately. You don’t want to have to revisit their pay scale right away.

2. “WHO WILL I BE WORKING WITH?”

This is why employees stay with an organization.

• What is my boss like?
• What are my fellow employees like?
• Can I interact with internal resources?
• Who are my clients?
• Is it bureaucratic?

3. “WHAT EXACTLY WILL I BE DOING?”

This is why employees leave an organization.

Today’s employees feel a need to be truly passionate about what they do. Oftentimes, employees are slowly tasked with additional things that they were not hired to do. Not enjoying their work is the #1 reason why employees leave organizations.

6 KEY ATTRIBUTES OF SUCCESSFUL LEADERSHIP

Wondering how to increase employee engagement? Successful leadership is critical to leading an engaged workforce. If you can embody these 6 attributes, your retention of talent will be more resilient.

1. Empathy
Put yourself in the shoes of your clients, employees and partners. For example, not everyone might be comfortable coming back in the office full time post pandemic – be empathetic to this.

2. Flexibility
Because the pandemic has changed the way we do business in all facets, leaders need to show a willingness to do things differently

3. Truthfulness and Trust
Be open about what you know and what you don’t know—the younger your workforce, the more important this is.

4. Clarity
Be clear about the plans of your organization and the role people play in achieving organizational objectives. This way, employees know how to align their strengths with the direction.

5. Communication
This has always been crucial to improved employee engagement, but with more and more emerging hybrid environments, it’s more critical now than ever.

6. Empowerment
With employee turnover averaging every 24 months, it’s imperative to empower employees quickly so they can provide as much value as possible within their short stay. Empowerment is also to assist your employees in making rapid decision during a crisis.

THREE STAGES TO CLOSING THE ENGAGEMENT GAP

1. KNOW YOUR EMPLOYEES
It’s important to work and communicate across the different spectrums present among your employees:

• Gender perspective – acknowledge the range of values, beliefs, and communication styles across genders.
• Cultural perspective – every single net new job in Canada is going to be filled by someone who currently doesn’t live here.
• Generational perspective – there are five generations in the workforce right now, so it’s imperative to know how to communicate with each.

2. DEVELOP YOUR EMPLOYEES
Identify the individual strengths of each employee and align it with your organizational goals. Personal and professional development will help you build capacity AND engagement while reaching increased levels of employee satisfaction.

3. MOTIVATE YOUR EMPLOYEES
Be inspiring. Leaders who can inspire their team will get the lion’s share of good employees.