Engage employees the LEAN way

Effective employee engagement can be fast, simple and low-cost, according to The Axelrod Group, experts in engagement and change.

As the economic recession continues with job losses climbing, a “psychological depression” may take hold. Surviving employees cope with extra work at no extra pay. Actually, pay cuts or freezes may be the norm. Employees can become less productive and feel more disengaged.

Employee engagement is a big challenge in bad and good times. In fact, in both the 2007 and 2008 LEAN Communicator surveys, respondents have ranked employee engagement as the top issue that keeps them awake at night.

What do you do to be more engaging, especially when you’re short on time and money? In a recent interactive webinar, Dick and Emily Axelrod suggested three kinds of timely, low-cost, yet high value engagement methods, which they refer to as everyday engagement. These include 60-second (or less) actions, mindful conversations, and meaningful meetings.

1. Sixty-second or less actions. In under a minute, you can smile, encourage someone, show appreciation or chit chat (i.e., make small talk). These are simple things to do. But we forget to do them. And we forget how much they mean to people.