Employee engagement has emerged as one of the most critical factors in driving productivity, retention, and overall organizational success. If it wasn’t clear before the pandemic, it certainly is now, particularly as we strive to keep employees engaged and motived as we traverse the world of remote or semi-remote work. A smart employer is willing to commit time and resources to cultivating strong levels of engagement. If you want to do it right, you must start by spending time with individual employees to gain an understanding of how they tick, what motivates them and how to maximize their strengths. When done right, the payoff is employee satisfaction and a workforce strong enough to help your organization increase its output and fulfill its goals.

Over the past two-plus years, National Fenestration Rating Council (NFRC) has invested a lot in its employees. Workforce planning, individual leadership coaching, matching skills with needs and creating a culture of discovery has become our norm. This is neither fluff nor filler. We expect staff to apply revelations about themselves and their colleagues as they collaborate and go about the business of making NFRC an industry leader.

When thinking about the next live session of our Women in Fenestration (WiF) Network (scheduled for October 25 in College Park, Md.), I reflected on the successes NFRC has had by providing our staff with personal and professional skills development activities. I recognized that women in the predominately male fields of fenestration, manufacturing, architecture and engineering—all industries where the gender pay gap is real and the number of women in management positions lags behind the number of male counterparts—will also benefit from these skills.

So why not engage women in the exploration and identification of their skills? Why not provide them with insight into their strengths so that they can apply them with confidence to their work? And why not help them understand behaviors that can hinder or help them in their jobs? Could these kinds of revelations result in increased job satisfaction, more recognition, new opportunities and greater contributions to their employers’ bottom lines? You can bet on it. Might they even relay the experience at the WiF event to their employers, thereby prompting interest to do the same for an entire workforce? I hope so. Afterall, engaging your staff, stretching their skill sets, and creating performance expectations is what a good employer does.

If you’re interested in NFRC’s Women in Fenestration event in October, please be on the lookout for promotional materials. Prior to attending the session, you’ll be provided a link to the Omnia Assessment which identifies motivators, preferences and behaviors. During the session you’ll receive a customized report and an Omnia expert will lead us through a lively discussion on how to interpret and apply the findings to become a better employee—for yourself and for your organization. I hope you’ll consider joining us.

And if you’re a leader and would like to talk more about NFRC’s success with employee engagement, please reach out to me at dcallahan@nfrc.org.