A Checklist of Practical, Constructive Ways to Help Workers Flourish and Increase Productivity  

The best kind of employee engagement isn’t about offering free sodas in the breakroom. It’s about an employee feeling excited to come to work — so excited that they don’t hit the snooze alarm when they wake up in the morning. They volunteer to stay late when needed. They are the first ones in the door. They have great ideas. They are eager to try things.

So, if you received your employee engagement survey scores, and they weren’t good, what should be done? The typical reaction is for leadership to panic. “We must do ‘something.’“ Maybe an employee picnic? Perhaps an ice cream social?

Is this your workplace? Does your culture support support — or even cultivate – the kind of daily  excitement and engagement mentioned at the beginning, or does management simply try stopgap measures when it’s clear that workers are less than happy?

Culture is built from the ground up – meaning that employees actually develop the “feel” of the workplace. In order for that “feel” to be at its optimum level, there are pro-active steps leaders can take to create a positive environment for employees to thrive and value their workplace.

Provide the Needed Tools
Organizations need to invest in the hardware, software, and workspaces that staff need to do their work today and into the future. Asking employees to be MacGyver-esque by using tweezers and a paper clip to create greatness is not going to help them or your company; in fact, having to “make things work” in order to do your job is distracting, and takes away any hope of creativity and innovation. By contrast, providing the right tools allows for full focus on projects and tasks, and lets employees know you are committed to them and their work.

Create Stretch Goals
Employees need an opportunity to do something more than the bullet points on their job description. Giving a worker a chance to use skills they want to develop creates a more well-rounded staff member  who could be a future star, while also moving your organization forward. This kind of environment also allows people to feel like there are always new opportunities in your organization, which in turn increases engagement and can become a recruitment point. Who wouldn’t want to join an organization where there are chances to learn and grow? 

Allow for Failure
Albert Einstein once said, “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” Einstein — a name synonymous with the word “genius” – nevertheless had some well-documented mistakes in his work (there is even an entire book written about them). What historians now think is that those mistakes were helpful for finding the scientific theories we still use today, since his process was so intuitive that even when he fell into error, he simply tried as many new forks in the road as possible to lead him (eventually) to his astonishing discoveries.

The point is that mistakes provide learning. Think about how many times a project went really well. It was nice. And you got it done. Now think about the projects where things went wrong; everything you tried seemed to fail. However, from that failure that you learned a new process, a new tool or a new management style that perhaps was actually better than originally imagined. When failure happens, the brain kicks into “make it work” mode, where additional options for which your brain may need to dig very deep give birth to imaginative new ideas.

Offer Feedback
“They know they are doing fine. If they weren’t, they would know it.” Unfortunately, this is standard operating procedure for many managers. The problem is, employees don’t know that they are doing fine if they don’t hear from you. While they don’t need to be micromanaged, they do need your guidance, experience and praise. A few kind words — even “thank you” — goes a long way to inspiring employees to problem-solve more diligently, bring a more positive attitude to the job, and even produce higher-quality work.

Recognize Great Work
Showing employees that you recognize their hard work reinforces the best behaviors you are trying to bolster as an organization. This reinforcement not only happens with the employee who is recognized, but also gets transmitted to those who witness the recognition. In this way, your organization moves forward because employees are emulating the behaviors you value: for instance, does your organization embrace fiscal responsibility? Hand out an award that recognizes people for finishing a project on — or under — budget. Does your organization cherish collaboration? Hand out an award that recognizes people for working outstandingly with others in different departments, different offices or different countries. The key is to make the award criteria known to all so that everyone knows which behaviors they should work towards and truly manifest in constructive ways.

Finally…
Make no mistake, food is a great way to bring employees together to network: it should not be your only tool, but allowing employees to chat, share stories and laugh over some snacks can create beneficial bonds between workers and departments. However, consistent feedback, updated tools/equipment and regular recognition are also required, and will go a long way toward creating more engaged and productive employees that catapult your organization toward success.