Respect will ensure your staff go the extra mile

Genuine employee engagement can only come from a culture which is empathetic and allows workers to feel valued.

World First Australia’s managing director Ray Ridgeway. Picture: Renee Nowytarger

Genuine employee engagement can only come from a culture which is empathetic and allows workers to feel valued and respected.

Businesses often use the term “employer of choice” when promoting themselves to potential employees. Sometimes it’s because they have received external recognition and have the credentials to back the claim up, but all too often it’s bandied about by businesses that have given little thought as to whether they fit the bill.

If many people want to work for you and they stick around once they’ve got the job, you’ve likely earned the right to call yourself an employer of choice. While it’s a straightforward concept, achieving it is more complicated than it seems.

Attracting and retaining employees is all about engaging with them to ensure an effective workplace culture — a phrase that might sound like jargon but in reality has a lot to do with job satisfaction. To achieve this, employers need to recognise the unique contribution each team member makes and encourage workers to compliment each other on their efforts.

Many businesses, especially in finance and technology, seek to create an enjoyable office environment with gimmicks such as ping pong tables and fully stocked kitchens.

While these offerings certainly add an element of fun and achieve a degree of engagement, they are not all things to all people.

Many employees need more than this to be truly engaged in — and committed to — a business’s journey.

For example, the 2013 film The Internship attempts to highlight Google as an employer of choice with visuals of colourful hats, exercise balls, funky lounge areas and the latest gadgets.

But what has really earned Google the title of the world’s most attractive employer is what goes on behind the scenes, the self-reinforcing environment Google has created in which employees support each other and management celebrates staff achievements on a regular basis.

This can be tricky to introduce to an existing environment and difficult to maintain in a rapidly growing and constantly evolving business.

An effective workplace culture starts at the top. All levels of management need to be committed to ensuring it is passed down at every level.

Management also needs to focus on continuing and strengthening the culture throughout the recruitment process.

New employees need to be screened to ensure they will not only fit in with the existing culture but add to it, and those detracting from it need to be removed.

A stronger workplace culture equates to better employee engagement, which results in more effective client engagement.

Employees who feel valued, respected and needed will always go the extra mile for their employer.

The flow-on effect will be further growth and success – not only for the business but also for the staff – and even higher levels of engagement.

In a nutshell, workers are more committed to an employer who rewards their efforts and makes them feel as though they are making an important contribution to a greater cause.

We spend so much of our week in the office, away from family and friends, so it is vital that we enjoy where we work and can appreciate the people we work with.

Ray Ridgeway is the managing director of World First Australia