Employee engagement top tips

In the current economic climate, it is vital to get the most from your team. Michelle Rodger of Scotland on Sunday captures this well in her articles, Engaging staff - it's a very good place to start  and The best leaders keep in contact with their staff

Based on our experience of working with organisations to boost employee engagement, here are some ideas of how to achieve this:

1.Take a step back and think about what you want to achieve as a result of better employee engagement - higher profits anyone? This is a good anchor for all future engagement activity.

2.Talk to your team or get some help on an independent survey to pinpoint which issues are most important.

3.Once you have identified these issues, share these results with your team.

4.Work with your team, with external help if necessary, to determine the actions required to address the issues identified.

5.Again with the help of your team and external support, implement these actions.

6.Ensure actions are followed through and not forgotten about, otherwise the whole exercise is just lip service, leading to cynical and disengaged employees.

7.Review progress on the issues regularly. Every 3-6 months is a good indicator.

8.Don't forget that new issues may emerge, so it is worth bearing this in mind and ensuring you have scope within your dialogue with employees for this.

9.Be honest with your team and don't be afraid to share results. These are simply confirmation of what is being discussed amongst your team anyway.

10.Regularly sense check engagement progress against your original objective - perhaps productivity, performance or profits?