Top 13 Employee Engagement Strategies That Work: Investing in Your Best Asset
Although the phrase “employee engagement” comes up frequently in the discussion of the modern U.S. workforce, the underlying meaning and costs associated with this term are frequently misunderstood.
Each and every member of a small business owner, independent contractor, and sole proprietor’s workforce, including the owner, works directly on their profitability. This means that an engaged employee works on a business’s profitability while also being present. An engaged employee brings their creativity, productivity, and allegiance to the business.
Disengagement comes with a huge cost. $8.8 trillion is the global cost of low disengagement, while in the US, this is about $1.9 trillion per year. This cost is roughly equivalent to 9% of the global GDP, Gallup.
Disengagement is also extremely costly and the answer is NOT to invest in costly catered lunches, or set up ping pong tables. Instead, you must focus on the core strategies that are the foundation of building a workplace culture centered around value, and real trust and connection. These are the top 13 employee engagement strategies that are proven to work and are especially suited to small teams and self-employed individuals.
What is Employee Engagement, and Why It’s Your Top Priority
Employee engagement is the emotional commitment of the employee toward the organization and its objectives.
This is not the same as employee satisfaction, though. Satisfaction is more transactional (“I’m happy with my pay”). There’s no further motivation. In contrast, engagement is motivational (“I believe in our mission and will go the extra mile”).
The Small Business Advantage However, in smaller businesses and contractors, this translates directly to:
1. Higher Profitability – Engaged teams are 23% more profitable than their disengaged counterparts (Gallup).
2. Increased Retention – This is a must for smaller teams. 87% of disengaged employees will leave, resulting in the company losing thousands in recruitment and training (4).
3. Improved Customer Service – Engaged employees perform better, resulting in increased customer satisfaction (10%) and loyalty (5).**
The 13 Proven Employee Engagement Strategies Building a Culture of High Autonomy and Trust
This is especially beneficial for contractors and small teams. It shifts from micromanagement to a focus on self-management. \- Offer Genuine Flexibility (The Where and When) Where possible, allow remote work, hybrid schedules, or flexible starting times. Satisfaction is more than achieved by 87% of employees when flexibility is offered (29).
Instead of monitoring time spent on tasks, focus on outcomes and deliverables. Establish clear measurable targets, such as KPIs and trust your employees to meet objectives on their own time. This can be very helpful when working with contractors.
As a sole proprietor, time management is critical to your success. Schedule your week to accommodate both ‘Deep Work’ and ‘Recharge’ time. You have complete autonomy over your schedule, use it wisely to avoid burnout.
Strategy 2. Implement Ongoing, Strengths-Based Feedback
Annual performance reviews should be eliminated. Feedback should be continuous, specific, and development oriented.
Weekly check-ins for 15 minutes with each employee to cover 3 questions:
1. What did you accomplish last week?
2. What are your top priorities for this week?
3. What obstacles are you facing?
Instead of fixing weaknesses, focus on employees’ greatest strengths, and allocate projects to them that maximize the use of those strengths. Strength-based management leads to 73% engagement compared to 9% with other management styles.
For Contractors: Provide immediate and targeted feedback on project deliverables. For instance: “The design layout was remarkable, particularly the color selections (Strength). For the next project, let us aim to create a more comprehensive usage guide (Opportunity for Growth).”
Strategy 3: Put Employee Cross-Dimensional Wellness First
If the employees are burnt out, overwhelmed, or having mental turmoil, there cannot be any employee engagement. Set and Exemplify Boundaries: Leadership must demonstrate a positive work-life balance.8 Please do not send any non-critical emails after business hours. Emphasize the taking of vacation leave. Even Minor Wellness Incentives: Could include a subsidized registration to a meditation application or a stipend to be utilized for a comfortable home office chair, or ill days that are not strictly counted. For Smaller Workgroups: Organize a mandatory (not optional) “Recharge Hour” weekly, where all employees are encouraged to leave their desks and develop a routine of taking break periods.
Strategy 4: Spend on Development, Not Just Pay
Employees, and more specifically, younger employees, will leave a position if they feel there is nowhere to grow.
For each employee, create Personalized Development Plans: Meet with employees to figure out where they see themselves in the future and outline the skills needed to get there.
• Training Stipends: A small amount per employee ($500-1000/year) can go a long way in showing employees online courses, conferences, or certifications for which you are willing to invest in their future.10
• Cross-Training: Encourage employees to spend developmental time in other departments.11 This fosters internal mobility and adds resilience to smaller teams.
Strategy 5: Connecting Work to Mission and Purpose
Employees are more engaged when they understand the importance of the work they are doing.
• Communicate the ‘Why’: On every project kickoff, communicate how that task or deliverable impacts a goal or objective of the company, or aids a customer.
• Customer Stories: Providing direct customer success feedback or positive testimonials is a big motivator, as employees can see the impact of their work.
• For Sole Proprietors: Remind yourself of the original purpose and passion that inspired you to start the business; this will maintain internal alignment to stay motivated.
Strategy 6: Achievement Recognition
Timely, specific, and values-based recognition is vital.
• Using apps like Slack or purpose-built software, provide real-time public recognition for big and small wins. This fosters instant gratification, which can be highly rewarding.
● Assure connection to values: When acknowledging a behavior, explain which company value this behavior corresponds to (for instance, “Jane showed Radical Candor value by sharing frank opinion on the new software”).
● Recognition from Peers: Encourage team members to commend one another. This creates a healthy and constructive environment.
Strategy 7: Assure Psychological Safety
Psychological safety is when employees feel they can take interpersonal risks, like asking questions, owning mistakes, or pitching new ideas, without the risk of being shamed or retaliated against.
● Leaders’ Vulnerability: Senior staff members should feel comfortable sharing when they make mistakes or when they don’t know something. It desensitizes the audience to mistakes as being part of the learning process.
● Remove Blame for Failure: For a given project that did not succeed, a post-mortem can focus on the learning outcomes to the process rather than on, who is to blame.
Strategy 8: Eliminate Friction.
An engaged employee can not exist when they are dealing with a combination of faulty technology, undefined outcomes, or cumbersome processes. This is referred to as “friction.”
● Identify Pain Points: Frequently, you should ask your team, “What is the most irritating or redundant task you have to do to complete your work?” Then, remove it or automate it.
• Supply the Appropriate Instruments: Make sure your team’s technology and software are great and dependable. Bad tools show that their time is not appreciated.
Strategy 9: Advocate for Openness and Direct Discussion
Distrust in leadership is a main cause of disengagement. Openness strengthens trust.
• Regularly Scheduled Town Halls/All Hands Meeting: Conduct regular meetings in which leaders provide clear communication reflecting the state of the company and the obstacles the company is facing, as well as the future trajectory.
• Allow for Off-the-Cuff Questions: Let employees submit questions anonymously in Q&A sessions, and provide answers to them. That builds credibility.
Strategy 10: Including Staff in Decision Making (Empowerment)
Let your employees have a say in their work and the ability to control it.
• Consultative Decision Making: When contemplating a change that impacts a particular team (i.e. new software, a new process), that team’s thoughts and feedback should be included in the selection and implementation process.
• Assign Ownership: Assign complete projects, not just tasks. Provide the team the autonomy to make key choices to be made, that fall within a defined boundary.
Strategy 11: Strengthen Your Onboarding Process
The first 90 days should be your focus. A positive, organized onboarding process improves new hire engagement by 33%.
• Prioritize Culture: During the first week, new hires should be introduced to key members of the team, have the organization’s values explained to them, and also have the organizational mission communicated to them.
Assign a Buddy: Pairing an incoming employee with a non supervisory mentor (a ‘buddy’) could assist them with the informal social and cultural facets of the role.
Strategy 12: Encourage Interdepartmental Collaboration
When teams communicate solely within their own departments, silos develop and the mission becomes disjointed.
Cross Functional Teaming: Initiate short-term assignments that necessitate cross functional collaboration (ex: a Sales representative working with a member of Marketing).
Informal Networking: Plan gatherings (including virtual ones) that promote mingling rather than departmental socializing.
Strategy 13: Focus on Meaningful Metrics
Look beyond the superficial turnover figures, and adopt metrics that indicate the strength of your culture of engagement.
Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS): A straightforward Net Promoter Score (NPS) style question: “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend your friends to work at this company?”
Internal Mobility Rate: Measure the rate at which employees change job positions (through promotions or lateral moves) within a given time period. A high rate indicates that employees perceive a future with the organization.
- Absence Rate: Unanticipated absences might be an initial alert of low employee enthusiasm and fatigue.20
Conclusion: The ROI of Engagement
Having engaged employees has not been an abstract construct of HR as it has been the most efficient tool to increase profitability, retention, and customer happiness of your US business. All the outlined strategies are free to low cost and are scalable to small businesses, contractors, and sole proprietors.
The most important message from this paper is that your manager (or your self-leadership) is the primary driver of engagement, so take the time to develop such managers and let them lead with empathy and trust.
Some Suggested Next Steps:
- Obtain Employee Feedback: Perform a short, anonymous
pulse survey’ to determine the following: To what extent do you agree with the following statements:
1) I feel respected and valued at work (5-point scale)
2) I have the tools and resources to perform at a high level (5-point scale).’
Conduct a ‘Stop Doing’ Workshop: Invite your colleagues and say “What is one frustrating task or process we can remove from our work this week?” This instantly eliminates frustration and increases morale.
- Recognize One Person: Today, in front of the group, acknowledge one member of the team. Be detailed in their actions and describe the benefits gained by the organization.