Employ these powerful practices to maintain happy and engaged employees – especially during the holidays.

Towards the final week of the month of November, office chatter usually revolves around Thanksgiving preparations—both personal and office related. For a few lucky companies, employees arrive on Monday, excited to celebrate the approaching holiday with their coworkers in a cheerful and hopeful environment.  At most companies, however, employees arrive depressed to a dreary environment and spend every waking minute of the work week counting down the hours until their small holiday-induced vacation.

Companies who feature happy, hopeful employees have a high level of employee engagement – while those that host desperate and unmotivated employees do not.  This is a pretty big deal.

With nearly 70% of employees in the U.S. being disengaged with their workplace, odds are that your employees feel no sense of connection to you or the company. This is directly connected to the relationship that you, as a manager, have with your employees- which represents serious problems for the company.

Employees with a low level of engagement in the workplace are characterized by:

• Being stressed out
• Being moody
• Are less motivated
• Are less loyal

In addition, disengaged employees represent huge losses in:

• Productivity
• Innovation
• Customer engagement
• Profitability
• Revenue
• Company growth.

In contrast, engaged employees feel an emotional connection to their workplace and actively work to see it succeed. This translates into increased productivity, company growth, and higher profits.

Employee engagement makes or breaks a company; it is the cornerstone of a successful business.

Thankfully, it lies directly in your hands which means you can develop and control it. Fostering the engagement of your employees is not easy, but it is simple. Since 60% of employees who report feeling valued are motivated to do their best work for their employer, the key to having engaged employees and, therefore, a successful company lies in modifying your actions to show your appreciation of them and their work.

You can show your appreciation by doing the following 4 things:

1. Communicate

It’s the oldest trick in the book; therapists have long droned on about it—with reason. Establish a respectful and friendly conversation with each of your employees. Vocalize your thoughts about their performance with positive language. Ask questions about their feelings toward your behavior, office environment, and tasks. Say “Good morning!” and “Have a nice weekend!”. Say “thank you” (yes, it’s as simple as that!) when a job is completed, regardless of the job’s quality.

2. Listen and act

Listen to the concerns and ideas of your employees. Actively try to fix the concerns and implement the ideas if you can; if you can’t, refer to point 1. By addressing their concerns, you show them you appreciate them enough to try and make their situation better; by at least considering their ideas, you say they’re an asset to the company and, therefore, appreciated.

3. Give meaningful work

Assign task with importance to the company; this shows you trust them at what they do. Also, try to assign tasks that they feel passionate about; don’t assign mundane tasks that belittle their position in the company and their intelligence.

4. Do one nice thing a month

We’ve all heard it: actions speak louder than words. Once a month, do something—anything—for your employees but make it thoughtful. It doesn’t have to be pricey or time-consuming; just show you care. Maybe one month you can throw a small office party or take them out to lunch. Another month, you can write a thoughtful/ comic email on a Monday to brighten everyone’s week. It doesn’t matter what you do if it shows them you care about their well-being.

As we start the season of giving, give your employees a reason to love their work and do a great job; you will only reap the benefits. We promise.

Want to learn how to effectively manage stress in the workplace? Download this free guide!