If your goal is to increase profits, your initial strategies probably jump to products, supplies, and pricing. And while these factors can all affect profitability, there’s one key ingredient that’s missing: employees. Profitability is closely tied to employee engagement. An engaged and productive workforce will naturally bring with it higher profits.
Trust levels, team cohesion, and workplace burnout all factor into the productivity of your workforce. Furthermore, unsatisfactory experiences can cause high turnover rates, leading to decreased profits. These turnover rates are within your control
HR and upper management often have a hard time trying to motivate their workers without coming off as superficial, but companies need their employees to remain fulfilled in their work. You can increase your company’s profits organically by focusing on these four elements of employee engagement:
.
1. Establish respect between employees and management
Trust is one of the fundamental building blocks of a productive workplace, and establishing this factor between employees and management can make or break an organization’s culture. Trust fosters stronger communication between employees and management, as each side becomes more willing to help one another.
2. Build team cohesion
Being part of a workforce inherently involves teamwork, but for a team to stay together and pursue a common goal requires team cohesion. This involves meeting all group goals recognizing the contributions of each team member. Cohesiveness can inspire greater collaboration and higher efficiency, which begins with properly engaging employees and fostering better teamwork.
3. Align your company’s vision
Employees are more likely to engage themselves with a company with which they share a common vision. Your company’s vision is actually a powerful recruitment tool, but its usefulness doesn’t stop there. You need to make sure each employee is empowered to find their place within the overall vision. Framing the vision statement as a broad set of goals that incorporates employees’ daily activities allow workers to feel like they’re actively contributing to the company and increase overall engagement.
4. Invest in employee growth
Employees want opportunities to grow as professionals. Harboring this growth in the workplace can be a great way to fully engage employees and inspire productive workers. Many employers worry that professional training opportunities will only encourage their employees to leave once they have broadened their skillset. However, if you offer opportunities for employees to advance within your company or take on new roles as they grow professionally, you will find that your workforce becomes more engaged, healthy, and productive with less employee churn overall.
The bottom line
Properly engaged employees are just as important to improving a company’s bottom line as executing clever marketing strategies or redirecting supply chains. The most commonly cited factors of an engaged workforce are highly trusted relationships, compelling goals, and opportunities for growth.
By investing in strategies that build stronger teams, address engagement, align the company vision, and foster employee growth, companies can retain their workforce and decrease turnover while improving efficiency and increasing profits. It’s people that make up a company, and in caring for the needs of employees, you will improve the overall health of the business.
