What is employee engagement?

How are Yorkshire Businesses dealing with Employee Engagement?

I’m sure you hear a lot about employee engagement. I certainly do. as we are a Yorkshire HR Consultancy based in Leeds – we’ll keep it direct and no nonsense!

So here’s a simple explanation of what it actually means:

Employee engagement =   Knowledge of what the job is + knowledge of why they are doing the work + motivation to work

Sounds simple – and it can be. So what does an engaged employee need?

1. Sound knowledge of the job, including day to day tasks and requirements, full training and development as needed.

2. Clear understanding of the business purpose, including business goals, market/competition and key information about how well the business is doing (…or not. Don’t hide bad news or messages – employees will quickly find out or make it up themselves).

3. Really good reasons to come to work, such as involvement, rewards and benefits. Note how rewards and benefits don’t come first on this list. You can’t create true engagement without knowledge and understanding first.

My advice as an HR Consultant? Fix the above and your employees will be more engaged. But work from the top down – ‘quick fixes’ are usually just that.