Best Employee Engagement Tips

Employee Engagement Tips that Work: #2 of 5

Hear “Thank You”

CHAPS Micro-Goal #2: Hear “Thank You”

Trying to determine the best employee engagement tips to enhance engagement and retention is not a no-brainer. However each of these five employee engagement tips I provide in this series will help you create a better workplace and improve employee retention and engagement.

Each tip provides an element of the acronym CHAPS. The CHAPS concept suggests five simple Micro-Goals that you can achieve every day that will develop a better level of employee engagement and ultimately improved employee retention. These are actionable activities that will address what is often referred to as the great resignation.

You Can’t Substantially Improve Employees Net Worth. You CAN Improve their SELF Worth

My core belief as an employee engagement speaker and consultant is that most managers / leaders cannot significantly impact employees net worth, but literally everyone – managers / leaders / co-workers CAN substantially impact the self worth of employees, direct reports and peers.

In this article, we look at “H” in CHAPS but briefly, the CHAPS Micro-Goals relate to:

C – Compliment one person today. (SEE Employee Engagement article on The Power of a Compliment).

H – Hear ‘Thank You’

A – Address colleagues / customers with their name (See more on Address Colleagues with name)

P – Positive words create positive impact

S – Smile – as in, Put a smile on someone’s face.

In this article, we look at Micro-Goal #2. As indicated in previous articles, while you may be practicing some of the elements of CHAPS, the important thing is to set these employee engagement activities as Micro-Goals.

The reason for setting them as Micro-Goals, is that we do feel better when we achieve a goal. This occurs because the brain releases dopamine – the feel good chemical when we achieve a goal. So, let’s look at the next goal to enhance employee retention and get rid of that dreaded “Great Resignation.”

Micro-Goal II: Hear the words “Thank You”

The idea here is that I will do something specific and deliberate for a colleague or customer today that will generate a “Thank You.” Now, it is quite likely that someone has already said “Thank You” to you today, but it went over your head.

However, IF you set a goal that “I will deliberately do something for a work colleague today to generate ‘Thank You’,” what happens?

Once you hear that “Thank You” you hear yourself saying “I’ve achieved my goal” and Voila! Dopamine. You feel good, positive and upbeat, but what about the person you helped?

Are they going to appreciate you more?

Will those actions if done consistently by you and others build a more engaged and appreciative workforce?

Will deliberate actions to generate “Thank You” help address the great resignation?

This simple activity will to a long way to enhancing a co-worker’s self-worth. When you improve a co-workers self worth, that person is going to feel more motivated and productive.

A more motivated and productive person is a more engaged person. The more engaged your team and workforce is, the better your employee retention numbers will be.

Now, here’s the question for you. Who will Hear the words “Thank You” from today?