Set Specific Goals to Increase Employee Engagement
An employee who is not committed to their work cannot contribute positively to the company’s goals. However, the good news is there are ways to help increase employee engagement. By setting specific goals, you can provide employees with both direction and motivation. Here are some goal-setting tips that help increase employee engagement:
Involve employees in making decisions that affect their work
Because everyone thinks and behaves differently, you simply cannot impose exactly what you want on your employees. If you give them a problem to solve, each will most likely choose a different method to arrive at a solution. In that sense, you can’t set goals and expect employees to achieve them without their approval.
Employee engagement when it comes to making decisions is crucial because no one knows an employee better than themselves. By working together, you can make better decisions and also show that you value your employees’ ideas and suggestions.
Set specific performance expectations that can be measured
Establishing performance objectives that are vague or too broad in scope are likely to discourage employees from working hard at achieving them. For example, asking an employee to increase sales is just too generic. To be more specific, ask them to increase sales by a certain percentage, let’s say 10%. While this objective is much clearer, there still is no timetable provided as to when they should achieve a 10% sales increase. So to be clearer, set a goal to increase sales by 10% by October 15th.
Given that information, the employee can then decide what to do between now and October 15th to make sure sales are indeed increased by the specified percentage. By knowing exactly what is expected of them, employee engagement becomes imperative, and a person is then more committed to their work and more likely to achieve the goal. Over time, if you want to build commitment rather than simply compliance, employees need to feel engaged in what they are doing.
Establish achievable performance goals
Employees may find it hard to feel motivated toward achieving goals when they view the goal as unattainable. A good goal is one that motivates an employee, one they can commit to, and one that is actually achievable. The keyword here is “achievable,” because there is absolutely no point in setting a goal that no one can possibly achieve. It is the complete opposite of motivating people to do good work.
You want your employees to remain committed throughout the entire goal-achieving process. When setting goals, you may need to look at previous data to determine whether or not the goal is truly attainable. Or you might want to start small to avoid overwhelming your employees with goals they might find too challenging. If they feel the goals aren’t possible to achieve, they may eventually become frustrated and discouraged. Or, in some cases, you may end up with employees who have “quit and stayed” on the job. This scenario can significantly reduce not only the employee’s level of performance, but also team performance as well.
Observe behavior and give feedback
When bringing new employees on board, the first 90 days is critical. Giving feedback early on helps reinforce the culture of providing ongoing and continuous feedback.
Employees need to know they are making progress toward achieving their goals. To help facilitate the process, you should stay abreast of what they are doing and regularly provide feedback that keeps them up-to-date on their progress. Remember that feedback isn’t just a status report; it’s also an opportunity for you to provide assistance that can help your employees accomplish set goals.
Giving ongoing feedback creates an opportunity for employees to be more engaged. Make sure to take time and sit down with them on a continual basis to let them know how they are doing. Recognize employees for their achievements and provide constructive feedback when they need to make improvements in certain areas of their performance.
Work Style Matcher by PsyMax Solutions is committed to helping you find the best employees. We’re located at 4549 Castlemaine CT in Akron, Ohio and we’re proud to offer our services nationally as well as locally: Highland Hills, Shaker Heights, Orange, University Heights, Moreland Hills and surrounding areas.
