Employee engagement at a startup is one of the hardest things to get right.
The startup life isn’t for everyone, and as anyone that has worked in a startup knows, there’s a ton of pressure, long hours, and almost too much stress.
Burnout and depression are very real things in the startup community, making employee engagement even harder.
We’ll often see TV shows or read news articles about startups in the valley with cool offices, great perks, and enough skateboards and beer to make you forget you’re at work.
But a hidden side to all of it is the intense work that is required when you’re at a startup.
One of the key components of employee engagement is work-life balance and making sure employees are able to take as much downtime as they need to recharge and refuel.
Unfortunately, most startup employees don’t have this luxury. Again, startups aren’t for everyone.
In terms of engaging employees, this is the biggest challenge that a startup faces.
Another huge challenge that startups face is obviously lack of resources (like money), making it tough to buy engagement from employees.
But there’s a bright side. You can use the fact that you’re a small, nimble team to your advantage.
Using The Startup To Your Advantage
There are several reasons why it’s actually better to be a startup when it comes to employee engagement, and we’ll go through each of them while giving you tips to use to make your team happier.
1. Smaller Teams Are A Family
This is the biggest advantage you have as the leader of a startup.
You can make every employee feel special and like they matter, and not like a cog in a machine.
You should be spending time getting to know your employees and taking a genuine interest in their well-being, even outside of work.
Ask them often how they’re doing and what you could be doing better to make them enjoy work more. Since it’s a startup, there likely aren’t many defined processes yet.
Let employees play a role in developing those.
2. Employees Want Free Things
Many people confuse engagement with spending money, like on fancy perks and foosball tables, and beer taps in the office.
While those things are nice, that’s not what employees truly want.
What employees really want is respect, for you to listen to them, and to be taken seriously.
As a startup, you can easily give that to them.
3. More Autonomy
Since you’re limited on resources anyway, you can give employees more autonomy.
Employees want to be autonomous and have more responsibility at work, so this is a perfect opportunity for you to give it to them.
Giving employees that sense of ownership is a guaranteed way to increase employee engagement.
4. Professional Growth
This is tough one to do, because everyone is so busy, but there are lots of opportunities for professional growth at startups.
If you can help employees explore different options and mentor them in areas that you know well, you’ll be doing yourself and them a favour.
Professional growth is by far the most important factor when it comes to employee engagement, so try to take the time to focus on this one.
5. Transparency
One way your startup can differentiate itself from larger, more bureaucratic organizations is by being radically transparent.
Include your employees in decision making, and share as much as you’re legally allowed to share with them.
It will make them feel like part of the family, and like they have a say in how the company is run.
This is one of the easiest ways to increase employee engagement.
6. Money Doesn’t Motivate
The research is very clear about this. Money doesn’t motivate employees to work harder.
As a cash-strapped startup, you should be happy about this and instead, focus on giving employees autonomy, helping them master their skills, and make them feel like the company they work fro has a valuable and meaningful purpose.
7. You Can Do Things More Frequently
If there’s one common theme with all of the research out there about employee engagement, it’s that employees want things frequently.
As an agile, nimble startup, you can easily do this.
Frequent employee engagement surveys, frequent one-on-ones, frequent performance reviews, etc.
Take advantage of the fact that you’re small and can move quicker.
What Are Some Ways You Engage Your Employees?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!