Employee Engagement: Learning from the Best

Employee Engagement: Learning from the Best

Posted by Diamond Richardson on Mon, Apr 08, 2013

Author: Beth Armknecht Miller
The degree to which employees are engaged with their work at your company has a significant impact on how successful your company can be and how much potential for growth it has. Over the years, I have found that companies truly committed to making their company a great place to work attract and retain the very best talent.

To raise your employee engagementlevels, it’s helpful to find examples of companies who have already created great places to work. These companies often rank highly on the list of companies with best employer brands. Companies that engage their employee’s enthusiasm, skill and passion are companies that create an army of brand marketers who will attract more talent and growth to your company.

So which companies are setting the bar high for employee engagement? What do they do to obtain such good results?  Here are three examples of companies that understand the importance of engaging their employees and allowing them to reach their full potential.

1. Zappos

• Encourages employees to be themselves at work, including how they would dress and act if they were at home, so that they don’t leave a big part of themselves at home.
• Allows employees to explore their talents and creative urges at work in order to discover which career paths might be the best fit for them.
• Provides life coaches to employees to help them set and achieve personal and professional goals, in order to find more happiness in their lives and pass that same happiness along to customers.

2. CLIF Bar

• Matches company culture of health and sustainability with employee incentives to buy eco-friendly cars and make sound home improvements (and give employees bikes if they want to commute that way!)
• Provides an on-site café for employees, which works with regional farmers to source organic ingredients. This demonstrates to employees that their work has a direct correlation with re-localizing food resources and improving environmental and human health.

3. SAS, Inc.

• Provides on-site childcare, medical facilities, fitness center and walking trails to show employees they care about all aspects of their well-being, not just their presence at a desk.
• Creates opportunities for employee enrichment activities to enhance social connectivity.

What do all of these companies have in common? They care for their employees. They demonstrate in tangible ways that they take their company’s values seriously and that they see the people who work there as human beings with needs, desires and dreams.

Once you understand how you rate in employee engagement, then you can start developing and implementing ways to improve responses to these kinds of statements. New methods and processes will allow you to find ways to recognize achievements, help employees grow, care for their personal needs and ensure company loyalty and a love for their job.

If you don’t know how you rate in employee engagement, now is the time to start the process of understanding and improving the way employees feel about their work and the company they work for.

ABOUT THE AUTHORBeth Armknecht Miller, of Atlanta, Georgia, is Founder and President of Executive Velocity, a leadership development advisory firm accelerating the leadership success of CEOs and business leaders. She is also a Vistage Chair and Executive Coach. She is certified in Myers and is a Certified Managerial Coach by Kennesaw State University. Follow her on twitter @SrExecAdvisor.

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