Monday, July 24, 2006

Engaging Your Employee in the Business

Want your employees to be completely involved in the success of your business?
Use the following information to create a work environment where involvement will flourish.

“Complete involvement is created when goals are clear and challenging, feedback is immediate and employees have the appropriate skills. The appropriate skills are essential because they allow the employee to take control of the activity.”*

“Flow isn’t limited to golf games and crossword puzzles. You can find flow at work if you have a job that interests and challenges you, and that gives you ample control over your daily assignments. Indeed, one recent study by two University of British Columbia researchers suggests that workers would be happy to forgo as much as a 20% raise if it meant a job with more variety or one that required more skill.**

So, if you want your employees to think and act like business partners rather than hired hands you’ll need to develop a strategy and tactics for providing them with the proper education, information and training. Done properly, training is longer an expense. It becomes an investment with an expected ROI.

* Flow – The psychology of Optimal Experience, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
** Money Magazine – Can Money buy Happiness, August 2006