Drivers of Employee Engagement 

Unhappy and disengaged employees can cause chaos in a business. Productivity will suffer, goals won’t be met, turnover costs will soar, and customer relationships will feel this negative impact. Fortunately, there are many strategies to solve this common problem, but it’s often not one size fits all. A great place to start is HR outsourcing, which means putting these and other HR issues into the hands of experts, like our team at Milestone. 

It’s important to stay knowledgeable about what drives employee engagement. Maybe you’ve been searching for a drivers of employee engagement PDF to email to your upper management, or perhaps you’ve put together an importance of employee engagement PPT to review at your next staff meeting. If so, your head is in the right place. Even if you haven’t done this yet, you are here reading this blog, which shows you are trying to figure out how to improve employee engagement. Let’s review, then, the key drivers of employee engagement. 

What Are the Main Drivers of Employee Engagement?

There are many avenues to take when facing passive and disengaged employees, but we will focus on 6 drivers of employee engagement that we believe to be the most important. Each is a valuable ingredient for creating a work environment where employees can thrive and actively play a part in the success of your business. 

1. Career and Learning Opportunities

When considering what factors drive employee engagement, opportunities for advancement are a big deal. In a study done to research the impact of employee engagement on employee performance, career opportunities were the number one motivating factor. This is understandable, as many want to advance their careers and increase their earning potential. Consistently promoting well-deserving employees from within your organization is one simple way to engage in this manner. You can also offer continuing education and mentorship programs to show employees you value investing in them. 

2. Recognition

Recognition can come in many forms. It can look like public praise in the middle of a staff meeting, a quick email of gratitude for a well-done task, or a raise to an especially hard-working employee. If your employees know that these kinds of rewards are regularly doled out to those that deserve them, the motivation to contribute and stand out increases. In a recent survey of 1,500 U.S. employees, 82% directly tied recognition to their happiness at work. When asked about their preferred methods for receiving this recognition, the majority chose financial gain in the form of a raise or bonus, but awards and visibility to higher-ups were also appealing to many. 

3. Coworker Relationships

Bullying is often associated with elementary school and lunch money. Sadly, bullies exist beyond the classroom. It can continue into the professional realm, tearing down healthy workplace relationships. Not all businesses experience this, but they might find their employees still lack interpersonal relationships that make them excited to come to work. Your employees spend a significant amount of their lives working, so it is important to fill those hours with a sense of camaraderie and mutual respect. At Milestone, we handle this in numerous ways, such as training managers on improving poor work relationships and conducting productive performance reviews. 

4. Believing in Company Values

A good business is built upon values and a mission it can stick to, including its leadership. Working for leadership that espouses values they don’t exemplify themselves can be demoralizing. Adhering to your values is not enough on its own, though. You need to instill them in your employees, and that takes more than a simple mission statement poster on the break room wall. As we stated above, one key to this is ensuring your leadership models your values. You can also incorporate your values into measurable KPIs, which is another straightforward way to consistently actualize your mission.  

5. Consistent and Quality Communication

In another survey of 1,000 employees, 91% of respondents said that their leadership lacked communication skills. When asked further what kinds of shortcomings they were specifically seeing in their upper management, the responses ranged from micromanaging to narcissism to outright bullying. An admirable solution to this issue is finding ways to open two-way streets of communication. Employees see things that leadership may miss, and vice versa. While accepting criticism is difficult, it is also incredibly important for finding your organization’s weaknesses and strengthening them. Creating opportunities to share, brainstorm, and discuss ways to improve your business makes everyone feel that their voices are heard and appreciated. 

6. Physical and Mental Wellbeing

Did you know that one in five adults experience a mental illness each year? And those with depression have a 40% higher risk of developing cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. Additionally, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the economic impact of depression and anxiety costs the U.S. $1 trillion per year in lost productivity. These statistics alone show how vital the physical and mental well-being of your employees should be. Implementing required mental health training for leadership, offering mental health care coverage or access to on-staff counselors, and providing free gym membership to your employees are just a few methods for taking care of your employees in this way. 

Milestone: A Driver of Employee Engagement

A business will flourish when employees are involved and happy. These 6 drivers we have mentioned are important to understand if your employee engagement is suffering. We have spent years at Milestone cultivating HR techniques that drive employee engagement and lead to prosperous outcomes for our partners. After learning about your team and what their specific needs are, we use those insights and wisdom from our prior experiences to create strategies that positively impact your business. 

Eager to boost your employee engagement? Contact us today for this and our many other HR solutions!