By Candi Pavliscak, Senior Vice President, Hennessey Capital

Conversations in business tend to sway toward sales and finance; asking "how do we get more business?" and "how do we increase our bottom line?"  However, turn on CNN or visit ABCNews.com and all the talk and political discourse is focused on the economic downturn and the unemployment rate. Perhaps business owners should consider shifting the conversation and looking at the internal factors of their businesses.  Today's business owners and managers are failing to address their most valuable asset - their employees.  While it's easy to have the mentality that employees should just be "lucky to have a job," that does not bode well for the sustainability of a business. When times are tough, owners need the best people to make the company efficient, effective and competitive. As economic conditions improve, competition for those talented people will increase.  Statistics show that half of the current workforce is unhappy. HALF! 

So why should you care if your employees are content at work?  Happy people are more productive and do more for your business.  Nine out of ten people say they are more productive when they are around positive people.  Productivity and business results are linked to the overall work environment.  Employees that are not engaged are damaging to your reputation, your customer service as well as the quality of your product or service.  Negative employees have the ability to impact every customer they interact with in a negative manner. Think of how many clients one employee may interact with in one day and multiply it by 365 - that's a lot of customers receiving poor service in the course of a year.  It has been said that people do business with other people not entities and research has shown that up to 80% of consumers have stopped doing business with a company due to one bad customer service experience.  That is a very large number and it highlights the importance of maintaining a healthy work environment in an effort to to keep employees motivated and happy.  Company leaders must manage and motivate talent and engage employees for a productive work environment.

"Employee Engagement" is the trendiest buzzword related to human resources. Simply put, it is the business concept of creating employees that are enthusiastic and fully involved in their jobs and the organization and will therefore be committed to your company and do more to further its success. Engaged employees feel like they are a part of the company and not just earning a paycheck - they are making a significant impact. This concept is commonly expressed as a pyramid, similar to Maslow's hierarchy of needs.  I recently attended a seminar on this topic and was especially interested in two areas; what drives employee engagement and how to improve it.

So what are the factors that make up this idea; what drives employees to become "engaged?" It used to be that good pay and benefits and satisfactory working conditions were enough to keep employees happy, but that is no longer the case.  Employees are seeking a complete experience at work, a sense of purpose.  They want to feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves, that what they do matters.  Engaged employees want to belong to a company not just work there.  Individually, they want to feel confident that they can achieve their career objectives and have a sense of personal accomplishment.  Most people seek to perform high- quality work, provide excellent service and want to be in a position within a company that fosters that desire.  Employees also seek opportunities for growth and development within their work environment and assistance to manage their careers.  That doesn't necessarily mean climbing the corporate ladder as much as the ability to increase their knowledge, proficiency and skill set.  Today's workforce takes pride in and is motivated by their career portfolio rather than an obscure title.  To put it very simply, they want to be appreciated.

So how do we get engaged employees?  The first step is recognizing the issue and becoming more engaged yourself.  Do you know what your employees want?  Make sure all managers and supervisor are working on fostering relationships with employees and actively listening.  Communication is the key to this process.  Have meaningful conversations to determine what matters most to the people in your company.  There is no "one size fits all" solution. 

Show some appreciation.  This doesn't have to be monetary.  While most people wouldn't turn down a raise or a bonus, that is not the only factor in employee satisfaction.  Studies have shown that employees will take a new job with a lower salary if they feel they will be in an environment that values them and where they have a sense of belonging.  A simple "good job" goes a long way.  Other possibilities are recognizing efforts at company meetings or in company newsletters.  Some other small gestures are bringing in bagels or lunch as a thanks for all your hard work. 

Collaboration.  Encourage team building and teamwork in your organization.  Share the company mission and objectives with all employees and make sure they know and understand it.  Have lunch and learn meetings to go over the company's performance and goals.  Every member of the team should be treated as important and contributing to the company's objectives.  Make sure your employees are empowered to do their part and have control over their own work product and value their opinions.  Even having a suggestion box can foster collaboration if the ideas are actively considered and implemented. It is also critical to be authentic - don't solicit ideas if you have no intention of considering or implementing them.  

These may all seem like very simplistic ideas and techniques but the goal is to make sure our employees know they are valued and that their opinions matter. But data and anecdotal evidence both indicate that taking employee engagement into consideration and working to ensure employees are valued goes a long way.

While times have been tough for all companies, especially small businesses, it is a lot easier to spend some time and perhaps a little money on small tokens of appreciation for our employees than to incur the expense of having to replace them. 

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