Employee Engagement and Business Growth: 4 Tips to Keep Employees Engaged

Growth is the goal of nearly every organization. No matter the size, age, or industry, organizations want to become more productive, hire additional talent, and increase profits.

But there comes a point where too much success can actually become a challenge. This is hypergrowth: when a company matures so quickly that it struggles to hold onto the ideals and processes that made it successful in the first place.

The World Economic Forum says companies need to have a compound annual growth rate of greater than 40% to achieve hypergrowth status. Organizations in this stage typically experience changes in strategy every 12–18 months, according to Elad Gil's findings in the High Growth Handbook.

Growth is exciting, and any company experiencing hypergrowth is clearly doing something—likely a lot of things—right. But if you hope to maintain the culture you've worked hard to establish and keep employees up-to-date with adapting practices, you need a plan to ensure everyone stays on the same page.

Here are some ways Quantum Workplace can help keep your organization grounded on the same principles that made it successful in the first place:

1. Establish Strong Core Values.

With rapid business growth comes rapid change. It’s often difficult for companies to maintain the culture that directed them as a start-up. But every organization needs some cornerstone that defines what it and its employees value and stand for.

Recognition is a great way to reinforce your values to long-term employees while defining them for newcomers. When you recognize employees for strong behavior or exemplifying core values, you’re publicly championing their actions for other employees to see. This not only encourages the recognized employee to act similarly in the future, but sets a standard among their coworkers.

Be specific and tell detailed stories of good behavior. The more precisely you can display what company values look like in action, the more likely they are to be repeated.

2. Create Clear, Aligned Goals.

As an organization grows, leadership will inevitably need to adjust goals. There will be pivots in strategy and new revenue benchmarks based on previous success. Goals are a great way to communicate these changes and ensure all employees are up to date with current initiatives.

The best way to do this is by creating goals that align the organization from top to bottom. All employees should have a clear understanding of how their individual goals and day-to-day work affect the team and organization. Employees who see their work contributing to larger goals will be more driven and engaged.

For example, if your organization has a goal to increase revenue, create a sales goal for your department and individual goals for members of the sales team. Each employee sees how their contributions affect not only the team mark, but the larger goal set for the organization.

3. Accelerate Growth and Change in Employees

Unfortunately, some of the toughest burdens of hypergrowth are placed on employees, especially those who were around in the beginning. They have to change and evolve along with the company, a process that isn’t always easy. Tenured employees are used to a certain standard, and keeping up with adjustments in strategies and goals can prove difficult.

There are a few ways to speed up that learning curve, such as:

One-on-one meetings:

Have managers meet with employees individually to discuss changes and how the employee’s role evolves. Managers should ask employees what they think of the changes and what can be done to help the employee adjust. Manager and employee should work in lock-step to keep everyone on the same page.

Feedback:

As an essential part of the growth process, feedback allows managers to instruct employees and employees to voice concerns or wins back to managers. It also allows for a more thorough performance evaluation, as managers can’t stay up-to-date on every single employee. Sourcing feedback from an employee’s coworkers can help managers gain a better understanding of productivity and cultural fit.

Goals:

By giving employees a benchmark to shoot for, you set an expectation for what matters to the organization. As things change over time, the bullseye of employee goals shifts and helps them understand expectations.

4. Connect Senior Leadership and Employees

Small companies have little problem communicating ideas from organizational leaders to employees. But that gap expands as more and more employees are added. Leadership loses its connection with employees, leaving employees unheard and management without the correct information to step in and help.

Engagement surveys help close that gap. They provide leadership with employee opinions that can help shape decisions moving forward.

Whether it’s an expansive census survey or a quick pulse, surveys give senior leadership a peek into employee motivations and whether employees are in line with and understand changes in direction.

Employee engagement needs to be a critical focus in any workplace, especially those that are undergoing big changes during explosive growth. To see how Quantum Workplace can help your organization thrive during hypergrowth, schedule a demo with one of Quantum Workplace’s engagement experts.