If you genuinely believe employees are your organization’s most valuable asset, invest where it counts most. Here are four ways to invest in employee engagement strategies and make your business more profitable in the process.

4 Employee Engagement Strategies that Can Make Your Business Better

Many of the strategies you could adopt to grow your business come with big price tags. In contrast, accelerating talent development in your organization through employee engagement strategies is likely to produce big results at a fraction of the cost.

When asked what sets their business apart, many business owners and CEOs quickly reply, “Our people.” And yet, outside of employee benefits and compensation, few organizations have a formal plan to continue investing in employee engagement strategies on an on-going basis in order to accelerate talent development.

“Accelerate talent development” – don’t you just love that phrase! We lifted it from TLNT.com, a site focused on ‘The Business of HR’ (human resources).

Most businesses expend significant resources to attract and hire the right people for their organization—not just people who have the skills and knowledge to perform the tasks relevant to a given position but who also represent a potential asset to the organizational culture. Given this investment, retaining and developing the talent attracted should be a strategic goal for your business!

Your organization’s talent development program should include tactics likely to increase employee engagement and satisfaction, but it should also include tools to accelerate talent development so that the talent developed can be reinvested back into your business to help it grow.

We came up with four employee engagement strategies, represented by four very relevant quotes, that enable you to invest in your employees to accelerate talent development and grow your business.

4 Ways to Grow a Business by Investing in Employee Engagement Strategies

1. “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” —Nelson Mandela

Education isn’t just about knowledge and skills. Education is about demonstrating your commitment to your employees. Investing in employee education sends the message that you want people to stick around for a while; after all, no employer invests in training and education for employees who want to leave!

Education can also increase employee engagement and enhance employees’ feelings of connection to your business’ brand, vision, and mission. It can help employees understand how their role helps to fulfill your organization’s mission and vision statements.

2. “Setting the right challenges will help your employees develop a ‘growth mindset’ and enlarge their ability to learn.” —Mona Berberich, a digital marketing manager at Better Weekdays, writing for TLNT.com. 

Set goals too low, and people may become disinterested. Set them too high, and they may become discouraged. But if you set them just right, you have created the foundation for higher levels of employee engagement and job satisfaction.

3. “CFOs say poor interpersonal skills are the top reason for an employee’s failure to advance in a company.” —Neil Amato, writing for CGMA Magazine

Poor interpersonal skills – sometimes referred to as “soft skills” – don’t’ just hold people back at work, they hold people back in life. Investing in training for individuals and in team building exercises can not only improve the soft skills employees need to develop on the job, but they can also improve your organizational culture by enhancing interpersonal relationships and fostering a deeper level of mutual commitment – the idea that “we’re all in this together.”

4. “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” —Peter Drucker

Last but certainly not least, our list of four ways to invest in employees in order to grow your business is investing in yourself. Employees must believe that you genuinely care about them and have their best interests at heart, or your efforts to improve your organizational culture will be met with skepticism. Invest in yourself through:

• Taking an interest in them personally
• Discovering the personal and professional goals of employees and helping to create the means for them to achieve them
• Practicing clear and continuous communication
• Talking with employees on a regular basis about the values, vision, and mission of the business
• Ensuring that each employee understands how their role contributes to the corporate mission and how they can help (individually or corporately) the business achieve its goals
• Welcome comments, suggestions, and even constructive criticism – especially if it leads to improvements in your company
• Recognizing and rewarding employees for outstanding work, leadership, and growth

These are just a few ways that you can invest in employees in order to grow your business and make it stronger, more productive, and more profitable. Most are very low-cost, and some don’t actually cost a thing.

Employing talent development acceleration strategies in your business could provide you with competitive advantages in business performance and talent acquisition. By creating an organizational culture that fosters high levels of employee engagement, you lay the foundation for making your employees the unique assets that you claim they are.