You’ve got superstar employees but they’re just not living up to their potential. Sickness is at an all-time high or your targets are stale, or you keep losing potential recruits. What’s going on? Could it be that you are not engaging your employees in an effective way?

Employee engagement is not about giving the employee everything they want – money, bonuses, holidays, though these things are great they are transferable and limited. What employee engagement is about is allowing the employee to feel like they have a true purpose in your organisation.

Employee engagement in practice

Newly appointed Hunter Dunning Marketing Manager, Louise Wilkie explains what persuaded her to make the move into a new company, and the difference she is already seeing in employee engagement compared to what she has witnessed in the past.

“I came on board with Hunter Dunning at the end of the summer following their interview process. A large part of what made me interested was the excitement and feeling that I could make a difference. That excitement came from not just myself but my interviewers too.

I got a call about half an hour after my interview to make me an offer for second stage and the same after that of an offer of employment. This has stuck with me from the beginning. So many companies make candidates sit and wait for a response which doesn’t really make you feel “wanted”. That is all before you are even an employee.

As for now and being in the job, what makes me get out of bed is the trust and autonomy I am given. The feeling of being “wanted” and “needed” has never waned. The broadcasting of my successes is humbling and makes me want to keep on giving. It’s not that it’s about ego stroking, anyone can do that, it is the genuine feeling of purpose within the organisation!”

Purpose

This sense of purpose that Louise mentions is the key to employee engagement. “keeping-in-touch” with your employees, through one-to-ones, surveys, meetings and other commercial platforms, with the intention of trust and transparency to deliver your message of purpose and mission will in turn bring out the same in your employees. In turn it will open the opportunity to align these goals as part of a two-way process.

Hunter Dunning Managing Director, Joe Synes said: “Walking side-by-side with your employees rather than above them is key from recruitment through the staff retention. It is a simple message but so many employers fall short of truly understanding their employee drivers. It is only when potential candidates decline offers or staff turnover increases does the question then get asked, what did we do wrong?”

Find out how to speed up your recruitment initiatives to secure valuable candidates here