With a national unemployment rate hovering around 9%, workers who are still employed are carrying a huge burden. Most industries have undertaken some form of a layoff, either directly, via the pink slip, or indirectly by not replacing open positions or combining positions. This means that the workforce of today is being asked to do more with less – in most cases, a lot less. How do you maximize the investment of your workforce? How do you keep them excited about coming to work? Focused on the job at hand? Not fearful about what tomorrow will bring? The answer is simple – employee engagement. We’d like to offer you 10 ways to keep your employees (and yourself) engaged and excited about coming to work.
1. Crystallize your compelling positive vision of the future. Right now, everyone sees doom and gloom in the forecast. It’s up to you to draft a vision of a culture that is positive. How are you going to treat people who are laid off? How will you help the employees manage greater workloads? And, most importantly, what type of an organization will you be when the recession is over? Our economy will not stay down forever. Ultimately, when the economy does improve, teams that have been led with a positive vision will be leaps and bounds ahead of their competition. While others are maintaining their vision of doom and gloom, you and your team can be working hard to improve the organization, giving you a leg up on the competition.
Engaged: How Leaders Build Organizations Where Employees Love to Come to Work