Company Culture is Key to Employee Engagment

A very recent TalentManagement.com blog post by Mike Prokopeak notes that even your top-performing employees that seem to be truly engaged at work are still a flight risk. How can you keep them fully loyal to the organization? Try focusing on company culture and mutual respect.

Engagement surveys are one way to gauge the levels of ‘loyalty’ from your employees. However, simply managing the survey results won’t guarantee that your employees are going to stick around. A June 2011 report, “What Executives Really Need to Know About Employee Engagement” notes that 43 percent of highly engaged performers have low-to-weak intentions of staying with their current employer.

What’s the problem? Engagement surveys aren’t as beneficial as one might think …

The typical engagement survey gauges employees’ experience at work – their relationship with their boss and co-workers and whether or not they find the job interesting. That type of measurement accurately describes what an employee’s work situation is like, but fails to assess his or her behavior and attitude toward work.

One way to help with retention is to boost company culture. It’s necessary that employees feel supported, that they feel like they can take risks and can count on their peers and co-workers. Three things that can help sustain engagement in the workplace are making sure that the employee feels these ways: 1) I’m making a difference; 2) We’re in this together; 3) My company has my back. If an employee can feel this way, an organization is effectively creating meaning, not just writing mission statements.

It’s also important that organizations create expectations so that everyone can see that each in their own way is doing their part to keep the company running and successful. A company culture based on respect and trust will be one of the biggest factors in retaining highly engaged employees. When employees can rely on their bosses and coworkers, their rates of satisfaction, retention, and engagement.

At the end of the day, engagement surveys only tell part of the tale. To ensure your employees are not only engaged but also satisfied to the point that they want to continue as an integral part of your organization, implement solid company culture. Be sure that your organization offers support and understanding, that each employee is empowered to take risks and feel like their decisions make and impact on the company. To read more about engagement versus retention, and how to keep your employees, click here for the full article.

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