The Magic of Employee Buy-In

We have all worked at jobs that were just that – jobs.Whether it was in an industry we didn’t care about, or a position we didn’t believe in, many of us spent a few of our younger years working at companies that we didn’t truly engage with.

If you run a company, it’s obvious that you don’t want employees to see their positions with your company as “that” job. You want employees who care about what you’re doing, who are internally motivated to do their best because they want the company to succeed.

Here are three steps to help your employees buy in to your company:

1. Your lead staff needs to buy in before you can expect employees to.

Supervisory and other leadership roles within your company are not only charged with training newcomers about their tasks and responsibilities – they are also teaching the new employee their own attitude towards your company. If an employee’s first line of contact within the company is somebody with an apathetic attitude, it will be difficult for your employee to feel differently.

The people who train your employees should carry an attitude that you want everyone in your company to have.

2. Align tasks with other creative passions. There is no better way to get an employee truly engaged in your company’s goals than hooking into that employee’s specific talents. Do you have employees who love writing? Photography? Graphic design?

No matter what industry you are a part of, there is always a need for some creative side work. Imagine an employee working in sales for an interior design business – they might not be absolutely nuts about interior design, but what if they love to take photos, and can capture your company’s creations and put them online for everyone to see?

They will easily start to develop a deeper appreciation of what you do – because it connected with something they already love.

3. Wear your end goal on your sleeve. It’s easy to describe what a company does, but there is a special reason that you, the CEO, decided to make this company your life’s goal – and it most likely wasn’t to simply to sell stuff.

Did you decide to start an event planning company after you attended a beautiful wedding as a child? Did you decide to sell mobile phones because getting your first phone completely change your quality of life? Did you love the quirky logo from your favorite childhood restaurant, and always thought it’d be amazing to design and make those for other companies?

Share the reason that you started your business with everyone. Remind them of it from time to time. When a customer is particularly happy, and your goal has been met – share the success story with everyone in the office, whether in a meeting or on a bulletin board.

It is easy to come into a company with a superficial read on why it’s services are important – and you can easily change that.