5 Ways to Engage Your Employees

Failing to engage your employees is an unforgivable mistake.

Employees who are not engaged in the company can feel less important, and employees who feel less important don’t care as much about their jobs.

Creating the spirit of engagement in the work environment will strengthen many spokes in the company, from higher productivity to greater customer satisfaction.

Putting forth the effort will pay off exponentially, and it doesn’t have to be difficult to get the results you’re looking for.

1. Make Sure You’re on the Same Page

How clearly do you communicate the company’s core values, and would your employees know them as well as you do? You need to be able to confidently answer a resounding “yes” to that question.

If your employees aren’t certain of the vision they’re standing behind, they don’t know what they’re working for. Educate your employees about the company’s vision to inspire passion and motivate them.

It’s hard to do an excellent job when you’re not sure what you’re doing in the first place, so it is imperative to provide them with the information they need in order to be excellent.

2. Chat on the Job

Not enough emphasis can be placed on the powers of effective communication. The individuals working for you are spending a significant amount of time at the workplace, and their jobs are a major part of their daily life.

They’ve invested time for you, and you need to do the same for them. Tell them how the company is doing and afford them with the opportunity to see how their collective hard work is paying off.

Answer their questions, take their suggestions, and keep them informed about the happenings on the corporate end.

3. Give Them a Reason to Believe

How easy to approach and how credible any manager or supervisor appears to their employees will shape the employee’s perception of the company.

If your employees feel that the person above them on the chain is not a man or woman of their word or they are difficult to reason with, they’re going to go home at the end of the day with a bad taste in their mouths.

Make sure all supervisors are modeling behavior that will make your employees glad to be a part of your company and develop trust in the workplace.

4. Encourage Innovation

If your employees feel bound by strict paths that have been laid out for them, they’ll begin to feel like drones. Show that you appreciate their unique ideas and approaches.

Make note of their successes that occurred as a result of marching off the beaten path. This will let them know that they’re being heard.

Your employees have a different skill set than you do, and they know the nuances of their jobs better than anyone else. They’re more likely to take a vested interest in a company that values their unique contributions.

5. Show Them Their Worth

Why should your employee work for you if they can find someone else who will treat them better? Quite frankly, any wise person would accept an offer to do the same work for better pay and better benefits.

Staying competitive shows that you’re willing to do everything you can to retain your valuable employees, and it will keep your employees loyal to your company.

They’ll be more willing to familiarize themselves with your corporate culture if they know they’re receiving their worth, because this will encourage them to stick around for longer.

—

Engaged employees are worth their weight in gold. The effectiveness and productivity of your entire company hinges on them. Put in the effort and you’ll see the results.

(Photo by Unsplash / CC BY)

Contractors' Questions: How to give clients a gift without it taxing me?

Pens or plaques are perfect presents for customers of Plan B.

Deadline looms for contractor loan scheme users

For contractors who want to settle with HMRC, Sep 30 'really is the final deadline.'

Contractors' Questions: What's my IR35 status as a limited company director?

The Intermediaries legislation in a nutshell for a newcomer to contracting.

Osborne sets date for Autumn Statement 2015

Chancellor picks Nov 25 for his first Tory Spending Review and Autumn Statement.

5 of the Best Office Designs for Productivity

On the hunt for higher productivity levels, some businesses resort to superficial incentive schemes, enforced overtime and an oppressive approach to team management.

These extreme measures can do more harm than good in the long run — especially when the secret to eternal motivation is right in front of you: Make your office a place your employees love to be.

When it comes to work, happiness and productivity are inextricably linked.

Make the office environment your ultimate motivation tool.

Whether you’re building on your brand power or introducing some tried and tested productivity boosters, any steps you take to maximize motivation are steps in the right direction.

Before you can transform your office into every employee’s professional paradise, the question is this: Is your workspace an environment optimized for peak performance or an oppressive office that kills your team’s creativity?

Whatever the answer, we’ve got case studies from across the globe to give you some food for thought.

Airbnb, San Francisco

Airbnb’s 72,000 square-foot idea factory is a brand environment like no other — perfectly defining the company’s ethos and offering a functional tribute to the brand’s eventful timeline.

With rooms throughout the huge office building modeled on real apartments listed by Airbnb themselves, this workspace is nothing if not a lesson in brand storytelling.

Spending months in the existing office space to immerse themselves in the company’s working habits and behaviours, the designers at Gensler realized that mobility was a core part of Airbnb culture — creating a new space fit for thousands of on-the-go employees.

Co-founder Joe Gibbia defined his brief for the building as “the most creative place on earth” — and Airbnb’s shiny new SoMa office is nothing less than inspiration in a bottle.

Lloyds, London

The Lloyd’s Building is a London landmark and bastion of modern British architecture. Renowned worldwide for its dramatic Bowellist design, courtesy of pioneer Richard Rogers, the “inside-out” office building takes open plan to the extreme on a mission to maximize staff motivation.

An intricate mosaic of activity, the workspace is a shining example of space being utilized to full effect and serves as a truly staggering piece of functional design.

The enormous barrel-vaulted roof illuminates no less than 14 floors of modular office space, with every inch of the environment designed to drive productivity.

Zappos, Las Vegas

At Zappos, company culture is priority number one, and the brand’s vibrant campus is a testament to its irrepressible character. Fit to burst with exciting gimmicks and mental stimulants, Zappos HQ dials the personality up to 11 and puts space at a premium.

The online clothing store’s headquarters is in the heart of Vegas and, unlike many megacorp office buildings, is actually optimized for inconvenience. Zappos’ weird and wonderful office space has been strategically designed to encourage chance encounters between employees — a reflection on the intrinsically chaotic nature of creative thinking.

Selgas Cano, Madrid

Nestled in the woods of Madrid is the headquarters of Selgas Cano, the Spanish architectural practice with one of the world’s most extraordinary office spaces. The tunnel-shaped workspace is buried in the heart of Madrid’s wilderness and integrates the natural and manufactured worlds in a way that’s utterly unique and incredibly impactful.

Studies show that the presence of plant life increases office productivity by a sizeable 15 percent. And by that logic, Selgas Cano’s rural hideout is surely the productivity capital of the world.

The office is designed to shade employees from direct sunlight while offering natural ventilation throughout the day, making this one of the most fine-tuned working environments on earth.

Google, Mountain View

The big daddy of brand power, Google boasts a workspace closer to Wonka’s chocolate factory than the average office building. Positively dripping with personality from the conference room to the volleyball court, this almost unbelievable office is practical branding taken to the nth degree.

The aptly named “Googleplex” has been the company’s base of operations since 2004 and is an impossibly colourful, contained world of fitness centers, nap pods, micro-kitchens, massage rooms and much more.

Offering employees an entire universe in one colossal office space, the Googleplex is all about perks — guaranteeing the Google team wants for nothing, especially mental stimuli.

—

You may not have a billion-dollar budget for your office space, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use some of the key ingredients to make yours a productivity powerhouse of its own.

By approaching the design with one eye on how you can keep your team engaged and motivated, you can take a leaf out of Google’s book and make your office environment an industry-leading workspace that puts productivity first.

Photo Credits: Nan Palmero, Tech Cocktail, 準建築人手札網站 Forgemind ArchiMedia, Robbie Shade

Contractors' Questions: Which IT skills are still 'hot' as summer ends?

Most of what's being demanded now will remain sought-after into 2016.