Businesses are slowly realising how important staff engagement is to get economies worldwide out of recession. The cost of poor engagement runs into £ billions. Not only that, it makes unhappy, unproductive working environments. These seven basic rules will tell you what to do if you want to create a culture that allows your staff to engage and make a greater contribution to business success.

1. Excel:arate
Mob: 07971 103 232
www.excelarate.co.uk
Raising performance – delivering results
7 Ways to engage your staff
Fiona Cohn
Excel:arate
fiona@excelarate.co.uk

2. Excel:arate
Mob: 07971 103 232
www.excelarate.co.uk
Before you start...recognise the
indicators
Here are some classic signs your staff are not engaged
• Swift exodus at the end of the day
• More mistakes than you’d expect
• Higher than average absence levels
• Problems referred up wasting manager time
• Misunderstandings and strained relationships
• People working in silos
• Rumour and gossip
• Losing your best staff
Raising performance, delivering results

3. Excel:arate
Mob: 07971 103 232
www.excelarate.co.uk
Why bother?
Disengaged staff are costing economies worldwide £billions.
In the UK the figure is around £65 billion.
More than 2/3 of staff are not engaged with their work.
That impacts on their motivation, commitment and
productivity.
Staff who are not engaged make more mistakes, take more
days off, provide a worse customer experience, and have
more accidents. They are also more likely to ruin your
reputation.
Business leaders now recognise that improving staff
engagement is the single most useful thing they can do to
get out of recession.
Raising performance, delivering results

4. Excel:arate
Mob: 07971 103 232
www.excelarate.co.uk
1. Listen to your staff
• Listening is a difficult skill to master
• Listen to understand not to respond.
• When you’ve listened show staff that you’ve heard
and understood.
• Ask them how they can make your business more
successful.
• Ask them what they need from you to be even better
at what they do.
• Acknowledge what they tell you.
Raising performance, delivering results

5. Excel:arate
Mob: 07971 103 232
www.excelarate.co.uk
2. Make staff part of the solution
• What ever you want to achieve in business, your staff
will have good ideas about what you can do.
• When you’re planning a change, involve them early.
• If you’re having difficulties, ask them for ideas of
possible solutions.
• Involve everybody who wants to be involved – even
the most junior member of staff has something to
contribute.
Raising performance, delivering results

6. Excel:arate
Mob: 07971 103 232
www.excelarate.co.uk
3. Ditch the Blame Culture
• Most staff come to work to do the best job they
can.
• When they make mistakes, use it as a
developmental opportunity for them to learn.
They’re already feeling guilty – why make it worse?
• Make sure that everyone feels safe to own up to
mistakes quickly. They’ll be quicker and cheaper to
solve.
• Blame cultures stifle innovation and problem
solving.
Raising performance, delivering results

7. Excel:arate
Mob: 07971 103 232
www.excelarate.co.uk
4. Recognise their contribution
• Say thank you for a job well done. It costs nothing
and buys you goodwill.
• If you get good feedback about members of staff,
either from clients or colleagues, make sure you
tell them and that others know.
• If they show initiative, see how you can reward
them by getting them involved in an interesting
piece of work.
• Work out how you can reward them (not
necessarily financially) for their contribution.
Raising performance, delivering results

8. Excel:arate
Mob: 07971 103 232
www.excelarate.co.uk
5. Explain the ‘golden thread’
The ‘golden thread’ is the link between what
individual members of staff do every day
and how it contributes to the success of
their business.
• Make sure all your staff know exactly how
their job contributes.
• Never assume they’ll work it out for
themselves.
Raising performance, delivering results

9. Excel:arate
Mob: 07971 103 232
www.excelarate.co.uk
6. Be Regular, Honest and Open
in your communication
It’s impossible to not communicate. Everything
you do and say and the way you behave
communicates something.
• Your behaviour can make a lie of your words.
• It’s particularly important to communicate
regularly and honestly at times of change and
challenge. If you don’t you’ll create a vacuum
into which will pile rumour, gossip, anger and
dissent.
• Make sure your messages are put in context.
Raising performance, delivering results

10. Excel:arate
Mob: 07971 103 232
www.excelarate.co.uk
7. Behave consistently
It’s not what you do it’s the way that you do it.
Do what you say you’ll do when you say you’ll do
it.
There’s nothing more worrying for people than
colleagues who are inconsistent.
People want to know where they stand.
Act professionally, resist the temptation for
favouritism and if you’re having a bad day tell
them. They’ll forgive you
Raising performance, delivering results

11. Excel:arate
Mob: 07971 103 232
www.excelarate.co.uk
If you want to know more about how we can
help you to massively improve your
business results, please get in touch:
Fiona Cohn
Excel:arate
Mob: 07971 103 232
Email: fiona@excelarate.co.uk
Web: www.excelarate.co.uk
Raising performance, delivering results