5 Powerful CEO Engagement Activities That Are Impactful

by Kylee Stone Apr 15,2022
Engagedly
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with Srikant Chellappa, CEO

Employee engagement initiatives are one of the primary objectives of a CEO. The employees are a significant asset to an organization, and an effective CEO engagement plan can continuously motivate them to give their best. 

As you move forward to the top rungs of the organizational ladder, your workload increases, and you have less time to connect with your employees. An effective CEO engagement plan is what you need to ensure employee engagement, making employees productive and more valuable to the company.

Leadership plays a critical role in employee engagement. One can’t run a business without them, as they keep the business wheels turning. CEOs who effectively engage with their employees and provide the right motivation and direction are more successful.

As a thought and people’s leader, you will always want your employees to feel proud to be a part of the organization. You will also want to ensure that your employees work in a happy and enjoyable environment. As a result, CEOs can undoubtedly do many things to help manage employees better and keep them feeling secure and connected.

Today, in this article, we will discuss the five powerful things CEOs can do to engage with their employees and appreciate their value in the company. 

How a CEO can engage with employees

Building employee engagement is the primary responsibility of a company CEO. To create a healthy relationship with their employees, CEOs need to engage more often, which will lead to increased employee engagement and efficiency.

Now the question arises of how the CEO can engage with his employees? Through an effective CEO engagement plan. Effective employee engagement increases employee retention and creates an emotional and psychological attachment between employees and companies.

So let’s look at a few steps a CEO can take to interact with his employees. 

  1. Allow employees to share their ideas. 
  2. Implement some of the shared ideas for the betterment of the company. 
  3. Share personal stories that connect with employees and help them better understand the company and the CEO.
Also read: 10 Reasons to use Goal Setting Software

The Effective Employee Engagement Initiatives

Leaders have a lot to do with an employee’s happiness at work–because when they feel good about themselves, they perform better. Building employee engagement is very important for the overall growth of an organization and requires a good CEO engagement plan.

Follow these employee engagement initiatives to create more genuine, productive, and longer-lasting connections with employees.

1. Build Trust

Building trust is one of the major components by which a CEO can set an instance for his workforce. When you set a good example, people are more likely to follow in your footsteps. Likewise, a poor example can lead people in the wrong direction. 

If you respect your people, they will feel more comfortable opening up to you, and you can point them in a better direction than they would have gone on their own. It’s all about how much trust you can gain from your people and be a source of good examples.

The best way to gain trust is to communicate with transparency and authenticity with your workforce. This is necessary for your business.

2. Invest in Small Acts of Kindness

The value of kindness is priceless in human relationships. Little gestures to the employees mean a lot, and these small acts significantly impact employee motivation and build an emotional connection with the organization.

The CEOs can send customized messages on special occasions, like employee birthdays and remarkable organizational achievements. Investing a little of time and money can help break down barriers between teams and make them feel  at ease where the CEO is a guide and leader to them. 

3. Create an “Advisory committee” Structure

Creating an advisory committee or council often helps to connect with the workforce. The group can comprise selective volunteers from specific departments, and they help the senior management set up long-term goals and important business planning.

Although the CEO takes major decisions regarding the company’s long-term planning and strategies, the advisory committee helps ensure the CEO gets all the help needed in deciding right. Thus, the employees feel more engaged and actively participate in building organizational strategies.

4. Use Social media to Interact more

Presence on social media is a fantastic way to connect with the employees and build a brand value for people. Most successful CEOs often follow this in connecting with the people and their employees. It allows you to stay up to date on your team’s life events and interact with them outside of the office.

Connecting employees through social media is an excellent tool for a good CEO engagement plan. Employee engagement through social media can be done in many ways which a CEO can leverage. Some of the ways include:

  1. Drop in comments, answer questions or reply. It is one of the best ways to engage with them, as it makes them feel heard. 
  2. Compliment employees on their achievements. It makes them feel proud and happy, boosting their productivity and further career development.

5. Recognize and Celebrate

Recognizing the achievers and celebrating their successes always encourages people to deliver better. To be a successful manager, you must first understand what recognition works best for your employees.

CEOs often take this employee engagement initiative to keep the employees motivated and recognized for their good work. Initiatives like ‘Employee of the Month,’ are always conducted to build a trusted and energized workforce. 

These initiatives often help build a strong, dedicated team and thus improve morale, increase motivation, and allow employees to get to know one another outside of the office. 

6. Allow Employees to Develop

Most managers don’t give their employees the room they need to perform to their best ability, but this is a mistake. Your employees always need support and mentorship. As a company CEO, you need to allow your employees to show off their skills and ability to do their assigned tasks. 

By giving employees the chance to prove themselves, you’ll help them work well with you in the future. To do this, you need to create an open and friendly environment, which will give your employees a chance to work in a way they’re most comfortable.

A comfortable environment enables the employees to work harder and bring out their best, building stronger teams, leading to more productivity and more overall success for everyone in the company.

7. Providing tools for success

It can be hard to explain to your employees why their daily routines are important to run the organization smoothly. You have to have a good grasp of the company’s workflow and how each department fits into the big picture. Training is the only way to ensure your employees are on the same page as you. 

Team members may feel unsure about their role and how to handle any critical situation, which will hamper productivity. A minor hiccup could become a much larger issue if the problem increases further. 

When you approach each employee individually and explain their duties, they will feel more confident in what they are doing and be more willing to take on new challenges without becoming overwhelmed.

8. Get to know your Employees

Spending time and building relationships can be what brings a team together. Learning about one another may seem like an old-school, outdated concept in today’s workplace dynamics. Still, a manager needs to consider taking the time out to know who employees are as people.

Making an effort to get to know your employees personally and treat them with respect will make them more satisfied and inspired to work. To connect employees on personal levels, feel like they are being recognized as a person rather than just a worker.

Also read: Qualties of a good manager: 10 Skills you need

Why is the CEO Engagement Plan important?

An effective CEO Engagement Plan has been proven to help business leaders connect more effectively with employees and improve their company’s results. It’s also good for employees, making them happier at the workplace.

Many factors determine how satisfied your employees are. Is your workplace environment a comfortable place? How well does the company’s management work with the employees? So many things can make or break employee engagement, but the best way to find out about it is to take feedback directly from them. 

CEOs can learn a lot about the overall job satisfaction of all their employees in one go, ensuring they can make any changes to their work and prepare a specific employee engagement plan. The process and the plan to engage with employees make all the difference and help to create a positive work environment

How do Employee Engagement Initiatives Contribute to Organizational Development?

Employee engagement initiatives build a happy and engaged workplace. 

These environments are fun and creative and are filled with intelligent, enthusiastic employees who will go the extra mile to help their company succeed. As the employees are engaged, the office environment improves, and their actions become reliable, resulting in significantly fewer internal misunderstandings.

Employees who are engaged are more likely to help increase profit revenues year after year, and highly engaged employees are more likely to increase their productivity significantly—the advantages of engaged employees spread throughout the organization.

Engaged employees work with a sense of pride and motivation to provide a higher level of service to your customers. When your customers are satisfied, sales and profits rise, leading to constant business growth.

As a CEO of the organization, you will always want to have a dedicated and happy workforce, and when everyone is engaged, it’s much easier to lead your team to success.

How can Employee engagement be measured?

There are many ways to measure employee engagement. A survey can be conducted, and the survey helps gauge employee engagement and company culture through your employees’ eyes. 

Conducting periodic surveys helps the management and CEO understand how the employees are aligned and focused on company goals and how they are comfortable with the work environment.

Conclusion

Why is a proper CEO engagement plan important? Employee engagement initiatives motivate the workforce to be productive and dedicated to organizational goals. The goals and values represent the prime foundation of the organization. 

From the top management to the frontline workforce, every employee wants to be heard, valued, and trusted. Making your employees feel valued and essential creates higher levels of employee engagement.

Building employee engagement creates a positive atmosphere in the workplace and leads to higher productivity. Higher employee productivity yields superior customer satisfaction and builds a trusted and profitable organization.

Engaging employees at all levels will help to increase morale and lead to improved productivity. The best way to do this is by making them feel as though you value them. When you show them the value of their work, they will be more apt to make more effort to ensure that they’re doing a good job. By also engaging with them, you make sure that they can provide feedback on how they feel and how they are aligned with company goals. 

A good CEO engagement plan will help you make informed decisions to change any negative work environment. Holding regular meetings with employees is also a great way to keep your finger on the pulse of your employees, and this is the best way to find out if there are any issues or problems that you can help mitigate.


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Kylee Stone

Kylee Stone supports the professional services team as a CX intern and psychology SME. She leverages her innate creativity with extensive background in psychology to support client experience and organizational functions. Kylee is completing her master’s degree in Industrial-Organizational psychology at the University of Missouri Science and Technology emphasizing in Applied workplace psychology and Statistical Methods.

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