{"id":21607,"date":"2017-11-01T15:25:51","date_gmt":"2017-11-01T15:25:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/?p=21607"},"modified":"2017-11-01T15:25:51","modified_gmt":"2017-11-01T15:25:51","slug":"increase-employee-engagement-and-development-at-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/2017\/11\/01\/increase-employee-engagement-and-development-at-company\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Ways to Increase Employee Engagement and Development at Your Company"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"employee\"<\/a>Only<\/span> 33% of employees are engaged<\/span><\/a> in the U.S., according to Gallup, and this number has been stagnant for several years. Reasons for unengaged employees range from lack of passion for a job, having leadership that is not involved, to not feeling appreciated in the workplace. While it is the responsibility of both leaders and employees at a company to ensure engagement, management should always have the goal to develop and grow their employees. This benefits the individual employee, but also helps establish the leader\u2019s management skills, the team\u2019s success, and a company\u2019s overall environment. <\/span><\/p>\n

So what can a leader do to increase engagement, develop employees and improve the business?\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/h4>\n

Explain the company\u2019s direction, strategy and goals<\/h3>\n

When an individual is hired and onboarded, their manager should describe the company culture and standards that are expected of each employee. This can be the company mission and values, but managers should go beyond these statements to having an open discussion with the new hire about expectations, as well as the company\u2019s overall strategy, plan and goals for the future. This conversation not only ensures everyone is on the same page, but also gives the new hire some direction and an early understanding of the big picture everyone is working toward.<\/span><\/p>\n

Encourage professional development, and create a plan<\/h3>\n

A manager should sit down with each employee to understand their individual goals and aspirations, and discuss how these align with the goals of the company. A manager should encourage the employee to create a professional development plan outlining where they would like to be in the next five, ten and twenty years, what skills they would like to gain, and where they would like to take their career. This helps the manager understand an employee\u2019s interests, and then allows her to suggest projects or tasks that can help with their development. And this helps the employee, because writing out his professional goals allows him to visualize and take charge by making a timeline of his developmental goals.<\/span><\/p>\n

Suggest or help find a mentor<\/h3>\n

Having a professional mentor allows individuals to ask for advice, share ideas and get inspiration from someone they admire. This could be someone in their field or in a position they would like to reach one day \u2013 or it could be their manager or boss. If a manager is not comfortable taking on the responsibility of being a mentor, she can help the employee find a relevant mentor using her connections. And while a manager may not want to take on this responsibility, the manager should still be open to giving advice and suggestions as needed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Share networking events and opportunities<\/h3>\n

As a manager, a good practice for the company and for individual employees is to share networking events with the team. This is a great opportunity for employees to meet with others in the industry to share information about the company and potentially get more customers or clients. Additionally, employees can meet with others to learn about industry trends and get ideas or inspiration. Showing that management cares about employees by inviting them to events goes a long way for their professional development and engagement in the workplace.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ask for their advice or opinion<\/h3>\n

An easy way to help employees grow is to ask for their advice or opinion on a topic or upcoming project. Truly engaging in conversation about a particular project, and asking questions about why they made particular suggestions, shows that a manager values their employees and trusts their judgment. Often, employees might not speak up or offer their thoughts unless asked, at least in the beginning, so encouraging employees to share insights and offer expertise is important. Each individual brings a different background and skills to the table, and the best work comes when everyone is encouraged to contribute.<\/span><\/p>\n

Give feedback<\/h3>\n

All employees should receive feedback from their managers regularly about their performance. This open communication ensures everyone is on the same page about tasks, and allows employees to continuously grow. Employee feedback should include positives about what individuals are doing well and constructive criticism to aid in consistently improving their work and development. Managers should welcome questions from employees and ask for their feedback about projects, their work environment, issues they are having, and what they can do to help with anything. This communication and genuine concern for employee wellbeing is significant for everyone involved.<\/span><\/p>\n

Employee engagement and development is an important aspect of a company\u2019s growth and success, and focusing on it helps both managers and employees continuously improve. \u00a0Taking the time to lead employees and focus on their progress benefits managers, their team and the company as a whole.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cResearch indicates that paying attention to the strengths of others is a critical element in developing others to be more successful, as well as building effective partnering relationships.\u201d \u2013 <\/span>Dr. Karissa Thacker<\/span><\/a>, management psychologist<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Only 33% of employees are engaged in the U.S., according to Gallup, and this number has been stagnant for several years. Reasons for unengaged employees range from lack of passion for a job, having leadership that is not involved, to not feeling appreciated in the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21615,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[356,346,82,86],"tags":[405,404,350,403,423,380],"class_list":["post-21607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-change-management","category-communication","category-employee-engagement","category-internal-communication","tag-collaboration","tag-communication","tag-employee-adoption","tag-employee-engagement","tag-future-of-work","tag-internal-communication"],"yoast_head":"\n6 Ways to Increase Employee Engagement and Development at Your Company - Enterprise Strategies<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Reasons for an unengaged employee range from lack of passion for a job, having leadership that is not involved, to not feeling appreciated in the workplace.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/2017\/11\/01\/increase-employee-engagement-and-development-at-company\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"6 Ways to Increase Employee Engagement and Development at Your Company\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Reasons for an unengaged employee range from lack of passion for a job, having leadership that is not involved, to not feeling appreciated in the workplace.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/2017\/11\/01\/increase-employee-engagement-and-development-at-company\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Enterprise Strategies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/EnterpriseStrategies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-11-01T15:25:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/employee.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"525\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"350\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andy Jankowski\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AndyJankowski\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@workingevolved\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Andy Jankowski\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/2017\/11\/01\/increase-employee-engagement-and-development-at-company\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/2017\/11\/01\/increase-employee-engagement-and-development-at-company\/\",\"name\":\"6 Ways to Increase Employee Engagement and Development at Your Company - Enterprise Strategies\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/2017\/11\/01\/increase-employee-engagement-and-development-at-company\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/2017\/11\/01\/increase-employee-engagement-and-development-at-company\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/employee.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-11-01T15:25:51+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5cc50b0a461fb29e9839942d29fc0268\"},\"description\":\"Reasons for an unengaged employee range from lack of passion for a job, having leadership that is not involved, to not feeling appreciated in the workplace.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/2017\/11\/01\/increase-employee-engagement-and-development-at-company\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/2017\/11\/01\/increase-employee-engagement-and-development-at-company\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/2017\/11\/01\/increase-employee-engagement-and-development-at-company\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/employee.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/employee.jpg\",\"width\":525,\"height\":350,\"caption\":\"employee\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/2017\/11\/01\/increase-employee-engagement-and-development-at-company\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"6 Ways to Increase Employee Engagement and Development at Your Company\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/\",\"name\":\"Enterprise Strategies\",\"description\":\"Delivering the Future of Work\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5cc50b0a461fb29e9839942d29fc0268\",\"name\":\"Andy Jankowski\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/978ad146c4e273d94fd290e33faf0c95?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/978ad146c4e273d94fd290e33faf0c95?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Andy Jankowski\"},\"description\":\"Why read this blog? Never before has it been as important to provide employees an optimal digital work environment. And never before has it been so confusing to do so. As a Chief Human Resource Officer you want to provide inviting, efficient and fulfilling employee experiences. As a Chief Technology Officer you want technology that is extensible and provides flexibility for business changes. As a Chief Communication Officer you need channels that break through digital noise and enable effective and efficient bi-directional communication with employees. As Chief Financial Officer you want a comprehensive solution and commercial model that comes at a low financial impact and ultimately pays for itself. And as employees we want to be able to do our jobs in a frictionless, effective manner with tools that have the same style and ease of use that we have become accustomed to in our personal lives. The good news is that enterprise technologies, social constructs and many work cultures have evolved to the point where all of this is possible. The challenge is evaluating the seemingly endless technology and process options to make this a reality for any one company. This blog is my attempt to share what I have learned working with Global 2000 companies over the last 26 years to solve various instantiations of these same challenges. I do not have all of the answers, and I fully suspect that through the process of researching, talking to others and writing, I will likely learn as much as anyone who reads these posts. At the very least, by the time I retire, maybe I will have documented enough knowledge and insight to have helped someone, somewhere.\",\"sameAs\":[\"andyjankowski\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/AndyJankowski\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/author\/admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"6 Ways to Increase Employee Engagement and Development at Your Company - Enterprise Strategies","description":"Reasons for an unengaged employee range from lack of passion for a job, having leadership that is not involved, to not feeling appreciated in the workplace.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/2017\/11\/01\/increase-employee-engagement-and-development-at-company\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"6 Ways to Increase Employee Engagement and Development at Your Company","og_description":"Reasons for an unengaged employee range from lack of passion for a job, having leadership that is not involved, to not feeling appreciated in the workplace.","og_url":"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/2017\/11\/01\/increase-employee-engagement-and-development-at-company\/","og_site_name":"Enterprise Strategies","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/EnterpriseStrategies","article_published_time":"2017-11-01T15:25:51+00:00","og_image":[{"width":525,"height":350,"url":"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/employee.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Andy Jankowski","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AndyJankowski","twitter_site":"@workingevolved","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Andy Jankowski","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/2017\/11\/01\/increase-employee-engagement-and-development-at-company\/","url":"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/2017\/11\/01\/increase-employee-engagement-and-development-at-company\/","name":"6 Ways to Increase Employee Engagement and Development at Your Company - Enterprise Strategies","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/2017\/11\/01\/increase-employee-engagement-and-development-at-company\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/2017\/11\/01\/increase-employee-engagement-and-development-at-company\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/employee.jpg","datePublished":"2017-11-01T15:25:51+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5cc50b0a461fb29e9839942d29fc0268"},"description":"Reasons for an unengaged employee range from lack of passion for a job, having leadership that is not involved, to not feeling appreciated in the workplace.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/2017\/11\/01\/increase-employee-engagement-and-development-at-company\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/2017\/11\/01\/increase-employee-engagement-and-development-at-company\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/2017\/11\/01\/increase-employee-engagement-and-development-at-company\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/employee.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/employee.jpg","width":525,"height":350,"caption":"employee"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/2017\/11\/01\/increase-employee-engagement-and-development-at-company\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"6 Ways to Increase Employee Engagement and Development at Your Company"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/","name":"Enterprise Strategies","description":"Delivering the Future of Work","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5cc50b0a461fb29e9839942d29fc0268","name":"Andy Jankowski","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/978ad146c4e273d94fd290e33faf0c95?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/978ad146c4e273d94fd290e33faf0c95?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Andy Jankowski"},"description":"Why read this blog? Never before has it been as important to provide employees an optimal digital work environment. And never before has it been so confusing to do so. As a Chief Human Resource Officer you want to provide inviting, efficient and fulfilling employee experiences. As a Chief Technology Officer you want technology that is extensible and provides flexibility for business changes. As a Chief Communication Officer you need channels that break through digital noise and enable effective and efficient bi-directional communication with employees. As Chief Financial Officer you want a comprehensive solution and commercial model that comes at a low financial impact and ultimately pays for itself. And as employees we want to be able to do our jobs in a frictionless, effective manner with tools that have the same style and ease of use that we have become accustomed to in our personal lives. The good news is that enterprise technologies, social constructs and many work cultures have evolved to the point where all of this is possible. The challenge is evaluating the seemingly endless technology and process options to make this a reality for any one company. This blog is my attempt to share what I have learned working with Global 2000 companies over the last 26 years to solve various instantiations of these same challenges. I do not have all of the answers, and I fully suspect that through the process of researching, talking to others and writing, I will likely learn as much as anyone who reads these posts. At the very least, by the time I retire, maybe I will have documented enough knowledge and insight to have helped someone, somewhere.","sameAs":["andyjankowski","https:\/\/x.com\/AndyJankowski"],"url":"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21607"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21616,"href":"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21607\/revisions\/21616"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enterprisestrategies.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}