Engaging unengaged employees

Unengaged employees are difficult to manage. In many cases, they aren't unhappy with their jobs – they just don't have much of a connection with their employers. They are perfectly content to clock in at 9 a.m. and punch out at 5:30 p.m., but they will be hesitant to take that next step to really improve their productivity.

If businesses have any hope of generating a meaningful relationship with these employees and boosting engagement levels throughout the workplace, they need to be careful how they approach the process. Trying to force too much change could convert workers from simply being unengaged to actively disliking their employers.

Engagement is a process that will take time, effort and a lot of thoughtfulness on the behalf of company leaders. To truly engage employees, it will take a combination of both managerial and operations-related changes.

Involving managers

To start, managers need to be fully involved with the engagement process. This doesn't mean just the business executives at the top of the chain, but everyone with leadership roles within their companies. The employer-employee relationship is frequently characterized by the connection workers have with their direct managers.

In a Lean work environment, leaders play pivotal roles in directing and guiding Kaizen events, which are crucial to bolstering employee empowerment. Rather than seeing themselves as being directors, leaders should view their roles as those of facilitators, guiding employees in taking control of their own jobs.

“Oftentimes, senior leadership comes into a facility to participate in a kick-off, or to simply deliver a message of encouragement at the start of the process, but is not involved after that point,” Logistics Viewpoints explains. “Your employees see right through this, and do not consider it to be true involvement. Senior leaders need to actively participate in the activities and engage with employees at all levels of the organization.”

Incentivize engaged behaviors

Another way to bolster engagement and empowerment is by rewarding workers who do take the extra step. There are a variety of ways to accomplish this. For example, create a suggestion box and then reward employees who submit ideas that are actually integrated into work policies and processes. Companies could also give bonuses and other perks to employees who go beyond the call of duty and really own their work.

Employee engagement and empowerment are crucial to successful Lean manufacturing companies, but these initiatives must be approached with care to truly generate a strong relationship with workers.