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… and having an engaged workforce is extremely key to enhanced Organizational Effectiveness. Here are five ways by which an organization can empower its employees and make them feel more engaged and valued:
1. Clear Corporate Vision:When you have a clear corporate vision, then employees know where and how they will be contributing to the grand action-plan. This in turn will help to make your employees feel a sense of meaning and purpose in their daily work activities and also about their role within the organization and their work-team.
2. Challenge them to Evolve & Grow:Make it a point to provide clear career and personal development plans to your employees. This will not only allow them to evolve and grow in their own right but seeing how much the organization values their growth and progress will make them feel more engaged in their work activities and overall organizational success.
3. Show Trust with Guidance ‘vs’ Management: When employees feel that they are being ‘managed’ it can have an adverse effect on their productivity. They will not feel trusted and will not feel comfortable to express their ideas and feedback. Instead when employees are provided mentoring and guidelines to do their job, they will feel appreciated for their core competencies and be more open to molding themselves to organizational and team needs.
4. Allow for Flexible Work Times: This may not be possible for all industries or job categories, but as much as possible provide employees with flexible work times. When employees are provided with flexible working times, they will be able to better balance their work and personal commitments. This in turn will reduce their stress levels and help them to be more strategic (instead of tactical) and engaged in their work activities. Ultimately this will reflect as increased overall productivity.
5. Provide Positive Feedback with Accolades and Negative Feedback with Constructive Criticism: Positive feedback in terms of accolades, rewards and awards goes a long way in making an employee feel valued in their organization. This in turn reinforces their commitment not just to the organizational goals and vision, but also their work team and projects at hand. By the same token when an employee has not met their performance expectations or their goals, provide them with constructive criticism along with concrete tangible actions that they can take to improve and develop. Such a healthy feedback cycle will make the employee feel engaged and valued within the organization.
There are many ways in which an organization can empower and engage their workforce. These five points above are a great way to start mobilizing an effective human capital vitalization strategy for your organization.
Sandhya U Bhat MSc, CSSMBB, CSSE has developed several new (under patent filing) and enhanced existing strategic methodologies to improve technology and human capital utilization, produce greater ROI on investments and streamline service delivery. She is an acclaimed author, speaker, a sought after thought leader and an avid world traveler.