Employee engagement affects more than just your employees and their turnover rate. Employee engagement affects your bottom line and profit directly. Companies with a high employee engagement level make 2.5 times more compared to their competitors who do not. Though it’s more of a “soft” metric or management focus, it’s one of the most important and can create a real difference in the success of your company.

So how do you pin down “employee engagement” and know where you team is at? How do you make sure you are inspiring engagement?

Here are a few ways to better understand and improve user engagement for better productivity and results:

What does employee engagement exactly mean?

Much like “productivity” or “collaboration”, employee engagement is a sort of elusive metric that many don’t understand the real meaning of yet seek to improve. Employee engagement does not necessarily mean employee happiness. So ping pong tables and other ‘startup’ trends aren’t necessarily the determining factor. Happy employees are different from engaged employees. Not to say that employees shouldn’t be happy but also challenged. Engagement means having a sense of commitment and interest in company and individual goals. When employees are engaged they are willing and motivated to put in effort towards goals.

So yes, your employees could be having a ball at drinks on Thursday. However, engaged employees will put company and personal success over small perks and are much more valuable to your company as your company is valuable to them.

How can you tell when employees are engaged?

Engaged employees aren’t just happy or busy employees. That belief is what holds plenty of teams back from peak productivity, lower turnover, and more profit in terms of management. Employees who feel compelled to work towards team and personal goals will be willing and proactive about collaborating with other team members and have a good level of communication. Team dynamic will flow better and they won’t need to be micromanaged. They will look for opportunities to expand their knowledge or share their knowledge beyond what is expected. They will go beyond the baseline to solve problems and share new ideas. One sure fire way is to look at turnover and replenishment. Engaged employees create a competitive and attractive workplace.

These aren’t necessarily things you can determine from surveys which catch very little of real sentiment or truth. Rather getting personally in touch one on one with employees and observing how teams work together is a better approach to see where employees are not engaged and what needs to be improved.

What makes employees engaged?

Employees are engaged when they feel comfortable, challenged, and like they have a significant place at work. Employees are motivated towards goals where they see how their contribution affects progress towards overall company goals. They feel motivated when they can see how their work helps develop them personally as well. Employees feel engaged when they feel they are applying the best of their talents and skills at work in a way that is beneficial. If employees are not utilizing their talents, they feel like they are in a temporary and stagnant position. Engaged employees know there is forward movement and opportunity ahead for them that gives them a reason to emotionally invest in their work. Even on a simple level, employees can be better engaged when they have strong interpersonal relationships at work and truly enjoy their work environment.

Quick tips on boosting employee engagement:

So how do you boost employee engagement? Here are a few ways you can quickly make efforts towards now that will help boost employee engagement and build a culture of productivity within your team:

Set personal goals for employees:

Make employees work feel personalized and tailored to their abilities by setting personal goals for them to work towards. Capitalize on their talents and they will feel motivated to perform their best.

Improve communication and collaboration:

Help build interpersonal relationships and strong team bonds by improving how employee communicate and work together. Try a enterprise social network like Joincube where team members can be a part of one central newsfeed, chat across departments, organize towards goals with tasks, and share important files all in one place. It eliminates resistance to working together more productively and helps centralize and unite your team.

Give feedback often:

When employees feel that there is ample feedback and direction, they are more likely to  be motivated to continually improve. Set weekly progress meetings and set continuous small goals to keep employees focused and feeling like their work is noticed.

Be clear about incentives and opportunities:

Show employees that their work leads to rewards now and in the future. Continually demonstrate opportunities for employees who show dedication and improvement at work that there is vertical movement or incentives available.

For long term, strong employee engagement, a complete company shift to an environment that inspires and motivates is key. Start by improving your communication and collaboration ability. Try Joincube to connect employees across your organization and boost engagement.[:]