In a document titled “Employee Engagement: The Key to Improving Performance.” published by Canadian Center of Science and Education, the great importance of keeping the engagement of your employees on a constant high level is clearly stated.

The authors claim strongly that employee engagement is a strong “…predictor of positive organizational performance clearly showing the two-way relationship between employer and employee”. I couldn´t agree more. As a matter of fact employee engagement is crucial for how successful your business will become.

Employee engagement builds on Manager engagement

Engaged employees are all very well but who has the responsibility, ultimately? Yes, the manager does. If you want your workers to put time and effort into the business and be proud of their job, which are all factors that automatically increase the level of engagement. You need to put time and effort into having a good relationship with them. But that may be easier said than done.

You don´t want to get too close, but you want to be respectful and have a functioning communication with your employees. To find out how their engagement in their job is, it may be dangerous to just ask them right out; mainly because they may feel like you are complaining or hinting something. A better way to get the answers and know how engaged your staff really is, would be to carry out an employee engagement survey. Such surveys prove your engagement in the workplace and especially, that you care about your employees. It is a golden opportunity for them to tell you how they feel about their job. Coupled with missing that embarrassing chat in the coffee room that will too often lead to the feeling of being controlling or distrusting.

Measure employee engagement with Netigate surveys

Netigate offers an employee engagement survey that helps to measure the engagement. The eNPS (Employee Net Promoter Score) results in division of employees into three categories – promoters, passives and detractors. You want promoters, you can live with having a few passives in the organisation but you seriously want to prevent the number of detractors from growing too much. These are the ones that will talk badly about their employer, and who will most likely not perform their best during office hours.

Engaged employees feel passion for their job and they are proud to do their best every day. For this reason they become ambassadors for your company and they are the ones you should allow to control your reputation.

References:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2014/04/10/its-time-to-rethink-the-employee-engagement-issue/#6cd26b791827

Markos, Solomon; Sridevi, M Sandhya.
International Journal of Business and Management5.12 (Dec 2010): 89-96. http://search.proquest.com/openview/bc96e695f646da62452f721af0949458/1?pq-origsite=gscholar