Given the ongoing global talent shortage, employee retention has become increasingly crucial for businesses across the board. While recruitment costs have always been a consideration, the current inability to easily replace lost staff places greater emphasis on the need to keep existing team members engaged. Engaged employees not only exhibit higher productivity but also demonstrate increased loyalty and are less likely to take sick leave. In fact, according to a Gallup Workplace report, businesses with engaged employees experience up to 41% lower employee absenteeism.
However, improving employee engagement is no easy task. Building a sense of connection and loyalty that fosters long-term retention and resilience within your organisation can be challenging, particularly when dealing with a sizable workforce. So, how can you identify potential employee engagement issues before they escalate into serious problems? The answer may lie in mindset.
Understanding the Relationship between Employee Engagement and Retention Employee engagement encompasses more than just your team member’s commitment to their roles and your business; it also pertains to their interest in their work and their level of emotional investment. A disengaged employee may not actively seek a new position, but most will readily consider one if the opportunity arises. On the other hand, engaged employees find both quantitative and qualitative value in their roles. They genuinely enjoy what they do, feel they contribute value, and believe their employer values them in return. Engaged employees often have a positive influence in the workplace, which can boost morale, thereby increasing overall team engagement and significantly reducing employee turnover.
Recognising that individuals who are happy at work, enjoy their responsibilities, and have positive relationships with their colleagues are more likely to remain in their roles is one thing. However, understanding how to proactively support employee engagement to retain your top performers is an entirely different matter.
How Businesses Can Foster Employee Engagement
The difficulty in addressing employee engagement stems from the fact that each employee is unique, with different needs. Therefore, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. However, there are multiple approaches that can be beneficial.
- Building a Strong Company Culture: While company culture is often discussed, many businesses face a disconnect between their stated core values and the day-to-day reality experienced by employees. Bridging this gap can restore employees’ faith in the organisation, helping them feel that the brand’s ethos has genuine substance.
- Encouraging Communication: Effective communication is a vital aspect of employee engagement. It is impossible for an individual to feel valued if they do not feel heard. Providing employees with a voice and opportunities for open, two-way communication fosters a positive mindset, especially when accompanied by regular feedback, guidance, and positivity.
- Investing in Individual Growth: Another crucial area impacting both engagement and the development of a positive mindset is personal growth. By providing individuals with the necessary tools for success, including training and personal development opportunities, you convey the message that they are valuable to the business.
- Prioritising Mental and Physical Health: In the past, mental and physical health were considered personal matters, but we now recognise their impact on professional performance and how work-life influences overall wellbeing. Improved mental health support in the workplace can save businesses a significant amount annually. In 2022, 185.6 million working days were lost due to sickness or injury. By caring for employees’ health, organisations not only enhance productivity but also improve engagement since individuals struggling with their physical or mental wellbeing cannot fully engage in their work.
- Supporting Mindset Change: Mindset is a recurring theme in employee engagement. It is an area that businesses often struggle to address, yet it permeates most aspects of our work and enjoyment. While mindset can influence employee resilience and be influenced by mental health, it also needs to be considered independently. Even the happiest and most enthusiastic employees can have mental barriers that hinder them from reaching their full potential. Mindset plays a significant role in our work and the satisfaction we derive from it, and it can be influenced by various factors, such as feeling valued within a team or managing stress levels.
How Shifting Self-Limiting Mindsets Boosts Collective Employee Engagement
Our personal mindset plays a crucial role in our day-to-day lives, influencing every aspect of our actions, from how we handle criticism to how we approach new challenges. While there is no universally correct mindset, a self-limiting mindset can hinder our work and diminish our enjoyment of it. Mental barriers convince us that certain things are beyond our capabilities, and the problem is that most of us are unaware of these barriers.
However, with mindset coaching, we can remove these mental blocks and unleash our full potential. At an individual level, the impact can be profound, enabling the fulfilment of goals, uncovering hidden skills, and making previously daunting scenarios—such as task completion, public speaking, and personal development—surprisingly accessible. This, in turn, makes the workplace more fulfilling and work more engaging. On a team level, mindset coaching holds transformative potential. When every employee is freed from the barriers that were unknowingly holding them back, productivity, engagement, happiness, and loyalty all increase.
Implementing Mindset Change
Achieving team-wide mindset change requires a holistic approach. Businesses need to address a range of issues, including those mentioned above: mental and physical health, company culture, communication, and employee development. Mindset coaching can be a powerful tool, enabling the identification of individual and team-wide challenges. Unless you understand the reasons behind employees’ behaviours, finding effective solutions will be elusive.
Employee engagement and retention are intrinsically connected. If your employees are not engaged, it is highly unlikely they will stay with your organisation for the long term. However, once you grasp the power of mindset and the importance of removing self-limiting mental barriers, you gain the ability to take control and support your teams in accessing their full potential, thereby building engagement naturally and positively.
Lisa Collinson – Chief People Officer and UK Country Manager, TheNextWe:
With over 22 years of experience in people leadership, Lisa Collinson brings a background in HR strategy development, implementation, and measurement. As an accredited coach, popular speaker, and presenter, she has worked across various sectors throughout the UK, Europe, and internationally. Lisa specialises in supporting businesses with change management, restructuring, and performance management, emphasising the study of behaviourism, and understanding why people act the way they do.
Lisa holds the designations of FCIPD (Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development), a Member of the Institute of Training & Occupational Learning (MInstTOL), Applied Behaviour Analysis trained, an APMG Change Management Practitioner, and a Member of the Institute of Leadership & Management (MInstLM).
