3 Engagement Strategies for Leaders: Get in Touch With Your Employees

Are you a leader within your organization? How well do you think you rate on your relationship with employees? For executive leaders in the senior care industry, attracting and retaining staff is critical to overall organizational success — and being in touch with staff is the best way to determine if your culture is helping or hurting you.

On a scale from 1-10 (with 10 being the highest):

• How in touch do you feel you are with your employees?
• How confident are you that you know how employees feel about their work environment?

How did you rate? If you rated yourself high, was it based on previously collected data? Or were basing your score on a gut instinct? Or did you have no idea how to rate yourself?

It’s no secret that leaders don’t always have the full story. It’s very common for managers to filter the information they share with their boss, especially if the news is negative. Your direct reports, and people close to you, may be telling you what they think you want to hear and hesitate to tell you what you don’t want to hear. It’s dangerous to think you know reality, when, in fact, you may be oblivious to potential threats because no one around you is comfortable sharing them with you. The idea of a “good-news” cocoon should frighten any leader!

When you think about the important role your employees play in your organization’s success and in the health and well-being of your residents, it’s easy to see why it is essential to stay in tune with your employees’ perception of their workplace environment. Here are three strategies you can use to bridge the gap between employees and yourself to get a true sense of how employees feel:

1. Conduct regular employee engagement assessments.
If you aren’t asking questions that employees can answer confidentially, you don’t have the whole story. This survey will provide significant insight into how employees truly feel about working in your organization. You’ll uncover qualitative data that provide the means by which you can assess levels of engagement, and qualitative data to understand the thoughts and feelings of your employees.

2. Conduct staff meetings that include a Q&A opportunity.
Give yourself an opportunity to hear and respond to the questions that are on your employees’ minds regularly. If your organization is large, consider holding a virtual meeting in which the first part of the meeting is used to share company information and the second part encourages employees to ask or write in questions about current issues or concerns.

3. Make employee rounding a priority.
Rounding provides a time to personally assess employee morale while identifying and removing barriers that prevent staff from doing their jobs efficiently. Through regular one-on-one time with employees, you’ll be able to uncover potential areas of improvement while building better relationships with those around you.

If you implement these three strategies consistently, you’ll be well on your way to staying in tune with employees. And by staying in touch with your employees, you’re better positioned to create a culture of engagement that attracts and retains talented staff.

To learn more about creating a great company culture, check out our post Is Your Company Culture Making or Breaking Your Employee Engagement Efforts?