According to recent research from talent and career management company, Right Management, low employee engagement and lagging productivity is the greatest HR challenge facing UK employees this year.

Employee engagement is crucial for stirring up creativity and ideas and ensuring people are actively involved in their work, motivated and enthusiastic. Employee engagement means tapping into people’s emotions and an engaged workforce is one that thrives on energy, positivity and communication. The opposite of this is burnout and often this is born out of a fear of failure and a culture of blame that can drain a workforce’s creativity and motivation.

A report released earlier this year called ‘Engaging for Success’ , (commonly known as the MacLeod report), was produced for Government and looked at employee engagement and the principles that lie behind it. The authors said “engagement, going to the heart of the workplace relationship between employee and employer, can be a key to unlocking productivity and to transforming the working lives for many people for whom Monday morning is an especially low point of the week.”
They pointed out if employee engagement and the principles that lie behind it were more widely understood, if good practice was more widely shared, if the potential that resides in the country’s workforce was more fully unleashed, we could see a step change in workplace performance and in employee well-being, for the considerable benefit of UK plc.

According to research from talent and career management company, Right Management released in May this year, low employee engagement and lagging productivity is the greatest HR challenge facing UK employees this year. The global research found this was the key concern for one in three (31%) of UK HR professionals, compared to a global average of one in five (21%) HR professionals. The research suggests after years of economic uncertainty and doing 'more with less', the UK workforce has reached a productivity impasse.

Employee surveys consistently show that the single most important factor in employee engagement is an employee’s relationship with his or her direct manager. In fact, employees don’t leave companies; they leave their managers. And they’re willing to do this despite tough economic conditions.

Managers can build and maintain strong employee relationships by leading and coaching employees to success. Coaching is about helping employees to become more effective in their roles both strategically, culturally and through performance. It’s also about aligning and facilitating each employee’s professional development and learning goals to the goals of the team and the organisation.

Employees need to know that they are working for their own goals as much as the organisations. When they have this understanding, they also realise how their individual role impacts business profitability overall.

What motivates us to work? Contrary to conventional wisdom, it isn't just money. But it's not exactly joy either. It seems that most of us thrive by making constant progress and feeling a sense of purpose.

Here are some tips on improving employee engagement:

1. Be a role model. Engagement is about conquering hearts and minds of people. People are quite happy to follow people they admire and respect.

2. Support and trust your employees. Having your employees back, it is important to create an environment where employees feel supported and allowed to take risks and initiative. This helps create a sense of loyalty, which is also critical to engagement.

3. Encourage open communication. Open and honest communication and feedback will reduce conflict and create an environment where creativity can flourish.

4. Listen to your people. Listen for ideas, complaints, suggestions, and take appropriate action. It does not mean act on every idea, but evaluate them and ensure people know the outcome so they feel heard.

5. Coach and mentor your people. Help them grow and develop.

6. Establish an inspirational vision. A vision also gives people a sense of purpose. It's important to make them feel part of something. It should be more than just increasing profits or cutting costs.

7. Ensure your people are challenged, and they are constantly learning. When people are appropriately challenged, they rise to it, and not only does their performance improve, their sense of pride and achievement increases.

8. Value people - Recognising people’s contribution, motivates people to do a better job, as they feel they are making a difference and adding value. When people feel taken for granted, their performance deteriorates and loyalty wanes.

9. Encourage social events and people developing friendships at work.

10. In terms of rewards, gifts are better than financial rewards. According to research by Dan Ariely, people would choose money if asked, but they are more motivated by gifts and recognition. Money is a basic requirement, but it doesn't motivate people, however it does demotivate them if they don't feel paid adequately.