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A lot of companies talk a good game when it

comes to employee engagement, but many are faking it. Here's how to

overcome some common mistakes:

Be passionate Your values should inspire your people. Those familiar mantras of ‘work hard’ and ‘deliver good customer service’ are so vanilla they should be banned, yet we’ve all seen them at some point in our career. They are created as a tick box exercise and then stuck up on walls in a vain attempt to engage the workforce, but what do they mean? How do you want your employees to behave as a result? Your values need to be lived, not laminated.

So what makes a great set of values?

Make sure they are actionable but most importantly make sure they inspire. At a recent customer meeting with ASOS, they shared their two values, which should be an inspiration to all:

•Nail the basics•Love our customers

Simple as that, yet they are instantly motivating and easy to action.

Use the right chat up lines Talk in your employees' terms, not yours. For example, when rolling out change, ensure it is solving your users' problems in language they use, not language you picked up from your senior management team or supplier.

Easier, simpler and faster is typically far more engaging than cutting edge or exciting. Why not create a glossary of terms you discover during employee discussions and user groups?

Then tell them you love them everyday Great news, today is our Employee of the Year awards, exactly a year after we last celebrated the great work everyone does. Sounds pretty dumb doesn't it? Yet this is the only love a lot of employees receive from their company.

Celebrate mini victories everyday. Introduce a rewards program that employees can contribute to to recognise their peers, engendering a joint e�ort and pride. Also when blogging or reporting as a member of the senior team, don't just mention Manager X and their team; name drop and make people celebrities for the day.

Relationships are built on trustWhen looking to engage your C-Level execs and managers, you will often hear; "what if they say...?" or "what if they do...?" Well how about considering the most important aspect of this; "what if they don't say...?" or "what if they don't do?" Trust your people to be brilliant, after all, they are the face of your company.

Return their calls!Reply, reply, reply!

You roll out a host of collaborative tools and get zero engagement. Ok, that's where Interact can help. You roll out a host of collaborative tools, get ideas and feedback, and then don't respond. This is where you need to help yourself.

Put yourself in your employees' shoes and you can quickly understand why they will disengage with your e�orts after a couple of empty interactions.

Don't take your relationship for grantedIt’s too easy to let engagement slip once you have built it up. Your people are almost always your biggest asset, so you need to keep listening and responding to their needs and wants. If you don’t, employees will become disengaged and lose faith in what you’re tyring to achieve.

Your employee relationship should be funIf you can enjoy engagement with your employees, they're likely to enjoy it too. Don't just dictate activities, ask for ideas and execute the most popular ones. Get everyone involved in addressing the challenges and implementing the changes.