Increasing engagement in SMEs

Only 36% of employees report being highly engaged*, so creating a culture with highly engaged workers is a priority for SMEs.

We’ve picked four indicators to help you judge whether your employees really enjoy their jobs:

Recognition: Every employee needs some praise to ensure they feel valued therefore lowering turnover.

Feedback: Employees want to feel part of a company so both positive and constructive feedback is vital to achieve this.

Personal Growth: Allowing employees to excel at work and also outside of the office is important. People are motivated by autonomy, mastery and purpose.

Satisfaction: A happy employee will be satisfied by their work environment, wage and benefits.

How can your SME apply an engagement programme?

Frequent surveys: conducting short, regular surveys will help you to gain insight into your company’s culture, what your employees’ value and what engages them.

SMEs winning at employee engagement

Here are three ideas from the top three winners of The Sunday Times Best Small Companies to Work For 2016:

1. Paragon Interiors Group, provides perks such as free breakfasts, bacon butties on Fridays, curry nights and social events, where partners are all invited.
2. Phaidon International, a recruitment firm, give their staff fun extras including the “king or queen for the day” incentive, which rewards the month’s top biller with a limousine ride to work, free meals and a massage.
3. Educ8, a vocational training provider in Wales provides external training for their staff and quarterly “gr8 days” when a morning of business information sharing is followed by lunch and an activity such as rock climbing or bowling.

If you’d like some advice on how to engage your employees then contact us enquiries@bradfield.co.uk or call us on 0207 977 9200.

*What’s killing UK productivity? By Red Letter Days for Business (September 2015)