t’s a question that all chief executives would like the answer to. Clearly there’s no magic wand to wave and it’s not something you can simply throw more money at. We study it more detail in our latest report ‘Getting employees to go the extra mile’.

We used a predictive analysis on a large sample of cross-industry employee survey data. This found that the most important thing is giving employees clarity on what is expected from them and how this fits into wider business goals. The other themes that came through strongly were believing in leaders and being able to communicate upwards.

Companies might not be able to improve these areas overnight but here are a few ways to address them in order to better engage employees:

Employee’s role – create role profiles for every employee. These should be underpinned by a robust competency framework that aligns to business strategy. By giving clarity around responsibilities, employees know what is expected of them and how they are supporting business goals. 

Improving leadership – use a 360-degree feedback and linked development programme to instil desired leadership behaviours and values in leaders. This will really help leaders to tackle the ‘how’ element of their performance and become role models within the company.

Encouraging upward communication – encourage open lines of communication so that employees feel free to communicate upwards. Line managers are one of the most important touch points for employees. Remember to provide managers with guidance on how to initiate open and honest discussion with their teams.