Workplace Engagement: How to Keep a Team Engaged

The lack of work engagement is one of the main factors that lead to high employee turnover. But do you know what it is?

Workplace engagement: the secret to project success

If you've noticed for a while that your office looks like a funeral home and all your employees arrive to work with a look of defeat on their faces, it's a sign that things aren't going well.

Ignoring this situation will not bring improvements, after all, this is clearly a problem of work engagement, and no, the employee is not primarily responsible for the situation.

Sometimes, the work environment does not favor the workers' morale and self-esteem, so over time they start to perform their tasks automatically, thinking only about their salary.

The fact is that a lack of engagement often results in poor performance, which hinders the completion of projects and, in the long term, causes serious losses to the company.

For this reason, a good manager must be concerned with the satisfaction and collaboration of his team, as this is the only way to guarantee success.

++Action Plan: what it is, advantages and how to prepare one – The Administrator.

What harms engagement at work?

In many cases, the manager does not understand what is happening with his team, as it was not always like this.

So what happened to make that engaged, excited and satisfied employee become so unmotivated?

The truth is that there are many factors that lead to this, and in general these are associated with lack of recognition and unspecific goals.

This is because, when the employee does not know exactly what they should do, and why they are performing that task, it becomes very difficult to maintain engagement, as things lose their sense of purpose.

And if the management team prefers to believe that the real problem lies with the employee, calling him lazy, disinterested or irresponsible, the situation will tend to get even worse.

After all, this type of attitude makes it difficult to identify real problems, and the tendency is that every day new employees face the same demotivating reality.

That said, the main reasons for lack of engagement at work are:

Lack of recognition

The employee goes beyond his/her duties and doesn't even receive a thank you. Over time, he/she pulls the brakes because he/she sees no reason to keep working hard.

absurd goals

In an attempt to offer challenges, some managers end up creating absurd goals, which are tiring and affect the worker's self-esteem.

Deleting projects:

The worker only receives orders regarding his part of the projects, and has no participation in the whole. This causes him to devalue the importance of his own work.

Harmful competitiveness

A toxic work environment where people always seem to want to stand out from others generates fatigue and frustration, so those who do not want to stand out at all costs end up becoming demotivated and distancing themselves from their tasks.

Disrespect for routine

Excessive overtime, disrespect for the fact that an employee has children or compromising study schedules are factors that lead to demotivation.

Inadequate feedback

Frequent feedback or feedback focused only on areas for improvement affects the worker's self-esteem, who begins to doubt their own competence.

Therefore, it is clear that the reasons for this lack of engagement are normally associated with management and team integration problems.

Therefore, it is worth evaluating these points before blaming the employee's commitment.

5 tips for maintaining engagement at work

Okay, by now you understand that your quiet, “Monday morning”-looking team is probably the result of poor management.

So, at this point it is important to understand how it is possible to resolve these conflicts, and thus recover engagement at work.

See below 5 special tips:

1. Pay attention to feedback practices

In management training courses, it is common to have a greater focus on the practice of feedback, as several experts defend this practice as a strategy to keep the team engaged.

However, while the lack of feedback gives the impression that the manager does not care about the team, excessive or overly critical feedback can bring equally negative consequences.

After all, imagine the torture of having to stop every day for 15 minutes to listen to the manager evaluate your work, which sometimes isn't even ready. Boring, right?

Everything can be even worse when this feedback focuses on the negative points, after all, no one deserves to hear only criticism, no matter how well-intentioned it may be.

Therefore, when providing feedback, pay attention to two main points: regularity and communication.

This will help keep the employee engaged, feeling seen, and confident, as they are not just receiving criticism.

2. Offer benefits

Offering employment benefits is not mandatory, which is why many companies see it as a cost that can be avoided.

However, the purpose of these benefits is precisely to show the worker that the company cares about their well-being and seeks to favor their routine.

Therefore, if your team is unmotivated, some benefits can help restore the purpose of working for a certain business.

Meal vouchers, gym passes, childcare assistance, health insurance and days off are just some of the benefits that make a big difference to the employee's pocket and well-being.

So, if you want to increase engagement at work, study the proposal, which will certainly be a source of joy for employees.

3. Invest in humanized management

When we talk about humanized management, we are not referring to the application of weekly dynamics (which many employees do not like), or to offering a chocolate on special dates.

Humanized management is that which understands that, before anything else, the employee is a human being and has a life.

So, sometimes it is important to give up results and goals to welcome and respect moments of absence or reduced performance due to greater forces.

The simple fact of allowing employees to speak directly with management already demonstrates progress in this regard.

Many managers avoid this type of management because they think it creates intimacy and harms results, but remember that the best way to recover an unmotivated employee is when you understand what is causing them distress and discouragement.

Therefore, if you want to increase engagement at work, it is important to make space to understand the demands of each employee.

++People Management Explained in a Simple and Practical Way (oadministrador.com).

4. Make sure everyone understands the why of their roles

Motivation and engagement are reflections of a purpose, and when the company does not provide this purpose to employees, the tendency is for them to see their work as repetitive and meaningless tasks.

The best way to ensure engagement at work is when employees see themselves as an essential part of the machine, that is, when they see that their roles are important for the projects.

Therefore, if you want to avoid an uncommitted and unrelated team, it is important to bring the projects closer to those who carry out the tasks to make it real.

In many cases, managers believe that the final objective is the responsibility of the board of directors, but without everyone's involvement, nothing is possible.

5. Track all projects

We previously discussed the importance of a manager knowing how to measure their interference in processes, after all, both absence and excess are problematic.

But, most of the time, the lack of team engagement is a reflection of the absence of the manager, which means that employees do not see the importance of their work, after all, if not even the leader cares…

Therefore, try to monitor projects closely, giving autonomy and prominence to your subordinates, but without giving up support in cases of need.

This type of monitoring also helps the employee understand the importance of their tasks, after all, someone is waiting to evaluate them.

So, although maintaining engagement at work is not an easy or definitive task, it is important to invest in these strategies to ensure a happy and competent team.

Roberta September 11, 2024

Career