Issue link: https://cp.revolio.com/i/873071
P o w er f ul T ip s F o r E n ga gin g E mpl o y e e s #ADSTRONG | AD Today 2017 | 69 Today, employee engagement isn't just a 'nice to have,' but rather a business imperative and key metric that many well-run businesses consider as vital as other standard business metrics like net promoter score, sales, and customer retention. High employee engagement, coupled with a sound business strategy, a healthy culture, and a focus on accountability and execution can make a company truly unstoppable on its road to success. How do you create a culture of engagement at your organization? According to Fraser Marlow, Chief Marketing Officer at WorkplaceDynamics in Exton, PA, "most practitioners confirm that you actually can't 'engage' employees – rather, you can create an environment where employees can become engaged. The focus is to create all the right conditions and opportunities for employees to connect with the goals of the organization and to perform at their best." Bill Kaiser, Senior Consultant at High Performing Culture in Moorestown, NJ, agreed. "There's nothing more critical to employee engagement than a defined, designed, and practiced culture," Kaiser said. "Culture describes the behaviors of employees on a daily basis and 'the way things work around here,' while engagement describes 'how people feel about the way things work around here,' so our work needs to first be directed at defining our culture, then working on engagement. Companies often rush to 'fix' a lack of engagement, but one shouldn't invest time and money working on the first floor of their new home if they haven't secured the foundation. Ultimately," he contended, "your culture is the foundation of everything you do in your organization." Marlow noted that it's important to start with a baseline of where your company sits today, a clear vision of the culture that will support your business objectives, and the support and alignment of your senior management; from there, you can identify the groups most critical to your success and map out strategies that will bring those groups along. "Changing an organization's culture takes deliberate planning, starts at the top, and requires sustained effort over time," he confirmed. "The continued on page 70 Bill Kaiser Senior Consultant High Performing Culture Fraser Marlow Chief Marketing Officer WorkplaceDynamics " Most practitioners confirm that you actually can't 'engage' employees – rather, you can create an environment where employees can become engaged. The focus is to create all the right conditions and opportunities for employees to connect with the goals of the organization and to perform at their best." — Fraser Marlow, WorkplaceDynamics