Every year, companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars to increase employee engagement. But is it working? And why is it so important? To get answers to these questions and a whole lot more, I talked to Dr. Bob Nelson, author of 1,001 Ways to Engage Employees and champion of simple but impactful methods for increasing engagement.
It started with a truth: You get what you reward on. And the followup question: So, why don’t we do more of it? Inspired, Dr. Bob Nelson set out to create a resource that would give people simple, practical ideas they could apply to their own business. Twelve years and thousands of interviews later, Dr. Bob Nelson has uncovered a lot of different ways (1,001 in fact) to increase engagement.
Ask your people for ideas
To create an environment where everyone brings their A-game, you need to ask them to show up. He shared a story about a company in Connecticut that put a simple method into practice. Every week, they would ask every employee to contribute two new ideas. Everyone started flexing their idea muscles, brainstorming, and seeing ideas put into action. As he put it, “All of the sudden, work has a whole different meaning when you can actively engage it and bring your best idea, your initiatives, your energy and help people with theirs. It’s just a whole upward trend.” And it increased revenue five-fold in three years.
Employees should own their engagement
As he explains, it’s not HR, it’s not the company—employees are the ones who really own their engagement. It’s easy for employees to say they’re not engaged when it’s a yes or no question in a survey. But what if those questions were turned around? “When you ask, ‘What are you doing to deserve recognition in your job? What are you doing to do your best to set clear goals?’ you put the onus on the employee.” And that’s where you start to see change really happen.
Recognition makes all the difference
Of all the tactics you can take, Dr. Nelson has one that he’d recommend above all others: “Recognition is the number one driver of the culture of engagement.” A note, an email, recognition from staff, it all matters. In fact, his research revealed an interesting finding: “Those four categories: personal, public, electronic and written, are mutually exclusive. They’re all praise, but praise isn’t just one big bucket. It’s such a powerful dimension that different types of praise have different meanings to people.” The takeaway? Get creative with your tactics so everyone can get the recognition that means the most to them.
Want more?
You can visit www.drbobnelson.com to learn more about his work and purchase his latest book: 1,001 Ways to Engage Employees.