I’ve been reading (and hearing) that a common concern many companies have these days is in finding people to hire.

In non-construction sectors it’s about quality and within construction sectors, it’s about shortage.

Whether it’s quantity or quality, as leaders we need to do a better job of keeping the employees we already have. We’ve invested in them, so let’s keep them.

If we don’t retain our top talent or we can’t find any talent, what does that say about our future?

My leadership tip this week is to have you strongly consider creating a formal employee engagement strategy to attract and retain the best available employees.

A successful employee engagement strategy results in a culture that will evolve into a great place to work. As a result, productivity increases, turnover is minimized, innovation flourishes, customer satisfaction rises, continuous improvement is common place, highly functional teams are created and profitable growth is achieved.

Employees that are engaged feel passionate about their jobs, are committed to the organization, and put discretionary effort into their work.

You may be doing many things now that is contributing to high levels of employee engagement, but the question to ask yourself is:

What are we not doing that we could be doing?

Or maybe a better question is:

What are we doing, or perhaps not doing, that is contributing to employee disengagement?

Once you commit to a formal employee engagement strategy, it’s imperative to then create action plans after answering these, and many other questions.

This may not solve the short-term problem of quality or quantity, but it will help you keep the employees you have now, and put you on the path of not having to worry about either long-term.