Engage Your Employees

During times of uncertainty it can be difficult to figure out how to engage your employees when morale is down. I just read a great article on entrepreneur.com that offers a few tips to get things back on track. Below is an excerpt:

The cost-cutting actions employers have made to deal with the economic crisis have left businesses with fractured teams of disengaged employees. Studies show that employee engagement levels have dropped significantly since 2008. According to Gallup, more than two-thirds of American workers are “not engaged” or “disengaged” in their workplaces in response to the brutal economic and workplace changes over the past two years.

“People are disillusioned with the economy and the fact that many of them are having to do more work with fewer people, thanks to layoffs,” says Dianne Durkin, president of Loyalty Factor LLC, which consults with businesses on change management, employee loyalty and customer loyalty programs. “You would think employees would be more engaged because of the economy, but I don’t think anybody is.”

And a lack of engagement among employees is costly for small business, leading to high turnover rates, shaky leadership and a dearth of good ideas. “What happens is you don’t get the creativity and the innovation,” Durkin says. “People [who are unengaged] aren’t going to speak up about issues they encounter, they’re not going to bring new ideas, and productivity really suffers.”

So how do you get employees engaged in unsettled times? Click HERE to find out.