Recently, I came across something pretty inspiring. I learned that a department manager has taken the time to learn the individual needs and passions of each of her subordinates, regardless of how insanely busy she was in her own role. She regularly takes the time to speak to them one on one to learn what their career goals are, what skills they want to develop, and address any concerns. Although that is impressive in itself, she doesn’t stop there. She takes the time to find opportunities for her employees to develop the skills in order to work their way toward their personal and professional goals. Since she started doing this, the increase in engagement has been phenomenal.
If you are a manager that’s looking to increase engagement in your workplace, consider trying this:
- Regularly schedule one-on-one talks with your employees in an open atmosphere.
- Make sure you talk about your employees’ career goals so you can get a feel for what they’re looking to accomplish.
- Discuss some of the tasks and skills they would like to develop.
- Talk to other managers in your organization to learn of different tasks or projects they’d need assistance on.
- Discuss these opportunities with your employee to see what they’d be interested in pursuing and what would be feasible for them to do on top of their current workload.
The extra work involved in this might seem overwhelming but the benefits are worth it:
- Employees will feel more accountable and appreciative to have a chance to develop themselves.
- Engagement and morale will increase.
- Turnover may decrease because employees will feel like they have professional and career growth opportunities within the organization.
- Employees will develop skills that can help them become more of an asset to your company.
- Departments using the employees for their projects may be more efficient with the extra help.
- Opportunities like this can allow departments to build a stronger bond and work better, cross-departmentally.
- Employees can gradually work their way into a role or even determine if the role or career path fulfills their passions as much as their originally had assumed.
- It can bring in new perspective and fresh ideas.
Sometimes extra training or promotion might not be feasible in your organization due to budget, financial, and hiring issues. But, in the interim, this could be a great way to keep your employees engaged and happy while working there. It promotes continuous learning and in a way they are truly passionate about. This can create a stronger and better workforce.
