3 Ways Small Businesses Can Improve Employee Engagement

Employee engagement has an impact on everything from productivity to employee retention to morale. A variety of studies have found that highly engaged workplaces have 20% or higher productivity and profits per employee than those that don’t. Let’s look at three ways companies can improve their employee engagement.

1. Get Honest Feedback and Then Act on It

Companies must first determine the level of employee engagement instead of acting based on impressions and anecdotes. Data driven management decisions are not impossible in Human Resources, but they may not be possible if the people collecting the data are biased in how they collect the data or interpret it.

The solution is to outsource employee engagement surveys to third parties such as Insightlink (for more information about Insightlink and their services, click here) so that management doesn’t receive overly rosy reports or biased action plans. This can happen because employees are afraid to tell HR about problems out of fear it will get back to their managers, data collection may ignore high non-response rates in favor of the skewed positive image or use feedback as justification for its pre-existing desired actions instead of what employees want. When a third party runs anonymous surveys, you’ll get more honest information than if HR could come back to “talk” to submitters and more detailed, actionable advice.

Set Up Your Business for the Long Run with Effective Marketing

Starting a business is a thrilling endeavor for every new business owners. Once all the paperwork is done, the business plan is set and the doors finally open, many breathe a sigh of relief. Knowledgeable business owners know that the real work in starting a new business is getting your first customers, though, and getting them to come back.



Direct-mail marketing is one of the fastest and most efficient ways to reach your intended audience. Brochures, sales letters and other materials mailed to your potential customers cuts out aspects such as ad servers and publications, allowing you to deliver your message exactly as planned. Before launching a direct-mail marketing campaign, make sure you have developed a suitable mailing list.

Online marketing, while not as effective as direct-mail marketing, can help you reach customers economically and without hassle. Beginning with your business website (yes, you need one) and then on down to search engine and content advertising, article marketing and e-mail marketing, online marketing has many tools you can use to your advantage. One warning: be wary of scams, as there are a lot of them that will pop out at you on the web. If an offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is: If someone promises you 20 million website visitors for $30, the chances are you’re wasting your money, leading to invoice finance.