How to engage employees

Gallup polls confirm that about 70 percent of employees are not “involved in, enthusiastic about, or committed to their work.” Another study showed that nearly nine out of ten American workers believe they do not contribute to their full potential, because they don’t feel excited about their work.

We have found four organizational-design interventions that are simple, inexpensive, practical, and local and can help employees at any level of the organization:

Reduce anonymity

Talk with employees about who their customers are, and build regular, face-to-face interactions with customers into existing processes, stimulating employees to learn who is most affected by their work.

Help people grasp the impact of their work

Invite customers who have had the best—and worst—experiences with your products to talk with employees in person so your team can see how their work affects customers.

Recognize and reward good work

Periodically make a note of one good thing done by each team member, thank them for it, and describe why it made things better. Create a “like” system on your company intranet or other network where colleagues or even customers can communicate satisfaction with a task or interaction (the “like” need only be visible to the recipient).

Connect work to a higher meaning

Push people to think about their work in a high-level way by asking employees a series of “why” questions for 3–5 of their most important job-related tasks.

To read the full article from McKinsey, please click here.