I recently read this article with alarming statistics that "only 30% of employees in a workplace are actively enagaged, while 50% are merely putting their time in and the remaining 20% being actively disengaged, acting out their discontent in counterproductive ways" according to a Gallup's 2013 survey. While it becomes extremely critical for an organization to address employee engagement, it's also an employee's own interest towards a rewarding worklife to remain constantly engaged. In my experience, there are 5 easy steps to address engagement at work:
1. Understand how your work is linked to the organization's vision: It is absolutely mandatory for an employee to understand the vision of the organization. It is equally important to link that vision with one's own deliverables in the workplace. Asking questions like "how will my work today help the organization achieve its vision" and "what can I do better to help the organization achieve its goals" can help one understand this linkage. In case you do not have answers to these questions, it makes sense to talk to your manager. Your ownership and engagement will increase dramatically if you know that your deliverables have the capacity to shape the organization's future.
2. Learn new things or pick up new skill sets: Many employees feel disengaged because they encounter monotony at work - doing the same thing over and over again.The best method to beat the cycle is to constantly keep learning new things and trying to apply them at work. It could be something as simple as learning advanced excel tricks, creating awesome presentations to figuring out search engine optimization or picking up skills in business analytics.Interact with colleagues who have different skill sets than yours; there could be an opportunity to learn.Feel free to stretch your learning appetite as much as possible; it never fails.
3. Take up challenging projects with full accountability: The ability to challenge one's own self continuously is one of the most rewarding experiences that a workplace can provide. Be it leading a task force to achieve tight timelines or making a winning pitch to a prospective client, projects that challenge your own limits can help you discover hidden strengths. The accountability helps you being sincere about achieving set targets and thus staying engaged.
4. Spend time with colleagues who are positive: Just like the way negative people can leave you lethargic and full of doubt, positive people have the ability to charge you up. Positive people will share optimism about the future, will stay motivated even in the face of uncertainty and will have an inspiring work ethic to learn from.Take some time to figure out who such positive influencers are at your workplace and make sure to spend time with them.
5. Stay updated with what's happening: It is very important to stay updated about what's happening across the organization and the industry in general. "how is the organization planning to respond to the price war in the market", "how is the industry poised to evolve under new technologies being preferred by the customer", "what are the best practices being deployed by other departments that I can learn from" - being inquisitive helps you being aware. You also feel closer to the organization and hence more engaged.
In my opinion, these 5 simple steps if followed can significantly help an employee stay actively engaged.Wishing you many more engaged hours!
Arundhoti
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