Keeping employees engaged in the office is critical. Employee engagement can increase retention, productivity, and overall positive company culture. While it brings countless benefits, many organizations overlook how important it is. Perhaps companies fear giving power to their employees but failing to drive engagement can be detrimental to your organization. Disengagement can result in burnout and the loss of even your best-performing team members. Without these professionals, where does that leave your company?  Fortunately, there is a solution. Incorporating an employee-centric culture can significantly increase employee engagement, so we will discuss how to cultivate one.

Connecting Engagement to an Employee-Centric Workplace

If you are unfamiliar with the concept of an employee-centric workplace, it is an environment that encourages ideas, creativity, innovation, and communication within an organization. This means that employees are the company's priority, and significant measures are taken to cultivate employee satisfaction. If this is achieved, employees tend to feel safer to make suggestions and challenge the factors they feel are interfering with productivity and performance. When employees feel comfortable speaking up and contributing to change, more improvements are made that management may not have realized were needed. As employees see that their challenges and ideas are received positively, they feel valued and see opportunities for growth in the company. As a result, the company as a whole reaps the benefits, and a cycle of engagement is created.

A positive office environment also leads employees to develop a better connection with their team and organization and build a strong sense of identity at work. The more connected employees feel to their company, the more they will take pride in their work – which is how engagement directly translates to productivity. Consider yourself, do you work harder in projects that you have a personal stake in? Of course, you do! In cultivating an employee-centric culture, employee engagement will boost substantially. Now, let’s discuss the benefits of improving employee engagement.

Benefits of Engaged Employees

Your employees are the backbone of your business, and they should be treated as such. Encouraging a positive work experience is vital for your organization to grow and thrive, which starts with engaging your employees. Creating an employee-centric culture allows you to give your employees the support and devotion they need to succeed without risking anything for your organization – building employee engagement can't hurt you but failing to can. Some benefits of increasing employee engagement may include:

• Increased productivity. Happier employees are more productive. When your employees feel engaged in the company and their work, they will strive to perform well and work hard. The happier they are in their work environment, the more invested they will be in their job, translating to better performance and productivity. When your employees are satisfied with their job, it will show in their work.
• Better understanding of your employees.The more comfortable and happier employees are within your organization, the more they will voice their opinions and express concerns. Feedback from your employees gives you opportunities to improve, and it can even help you identify their strengths to match a specific role. Understanding your employees' strengths and weaknesses can help you better match them to projects that they will succeed in. Additionally, you could realize that they excel in a skill you weren't aware of and can now utilize. The more engaged your employees are, the more they will want to share their strengths – improving team commodity and performance.
• Attract top talent. Good news spreads quickly. If prospective employees hear that your company offers a positive and employee-focused environment, they will be eager to join your organization. Especially for highly skilled professionals with their pick of job offers, encouraging employee engagement in an employee-centric environment could be what makes a candidate accept your offer over another. Even if your organization offers less pay than competitors, employees are more inclined to join a company that they feel will be a positive experience.
• Improve retention and reduce turnover. While attracting new talent is an excellent benefit, you will also increase employee retention for the talent you already have. If employees feel satisfied and engaged in their role, they won’t want to leave your organization. Employee turnover is expensive and time-consuming, so retaining the talent you have is crucial. 

How-To Cultivate Employee Engagement

Finding ways to engage employees provides countless benefits to both individuals and the organization as a whole, and fortunately, it's easier than you think to accomplish. Once you determine your current level of engagement, you should set up an action plan to create an employee-centric work environment. The analysis you conduct will expose existing patterns and issues across all departments in your company. These may be identified through common complaints from employees, which you can use to make a strategy.

Some companies utilize suggestion boxes to determine flaws in the workplace, but this may not be necessary if there are obvious issues. Determine if any tools, processes, workflows, or projects can be improved upon. Next, analyze the best practices implemented in your organization and compare them to other organizations – would another method be a better fit? While creating an employee-centric workplace to drive engagement does not have to be challenging, it should be founded on data-driven observations and assumptions. After all, you are looking to make improvements in your organization, so you should have a strategic goal in mind.

One of the best ways to drive engagement and improve your company culture is by simply listening to your employees. Take feedback from the individuals you are trying to engage and take action based upon this feedback. Simply giving employees the autonomy to make their own decisions and create their own solutions can go a long way in driving engagement and making them feel valued. You may be surprised by the ideas that your employees come forward with. Remember that you hired them because of their talent and skills, so let them utilize them to help your company succeed.

While many organizations are hesitant to transition away from the traditional hierarchy of a business environment, an employee-centric culture is the future of the office. The more employees feel supported and valued at work, the more engaged they will be within your company. With elevated employee engagement, employees will be happier - translating into increased productivity, performance, and retention. The success of your business relies on your employees, so for your sake and theirs, start investing in employee engagement.