Employee engagement is critical to creating successful and profitable companies. Employees who engage at work will do their jobs better, be happier, and be more productive in the long run.
However, improving employee engagement isn’t as simple as talking to them more often. There are lots of things you can do to engage employees. If you’re unsure how to improve employee engagement levels, here are some employee engagement ideas.
Strategies for Boosting Employee Engagement in the Workplace
1. Provide a Great Onboarding Experience
You might not be aware of it, but employee onboarding is a crucial experience for all new hires. It significantly affects their engagement and retention in the company, so you need to provide an excellent experience to them.
Most team members who quit (employee turnover) will most likely leave a company early. A Harvard Business Review study found that 20% of employees leave a workplace within 45 days of starting there. You can try to avoid this with a great onboarding experience.
Source: Harvard Business Review
Use the onboarding process to inform them about your company culture, mission, and vision. Let them know about their role in the company and how they can contribute to its growth. Make them feel that they are welcome and they belong there.
Also, set some short-term goals for new employees so they immediately have something to achieve.
2. Use an Employee Engagement Platform 📱
Just from the name itself, employee engagement platforms help boost engagement by improving communication and alignment in the company. These platforms also cause better productivity, company culture, and business success.
Here are some features you can expect to find on an employee engagement platform.
3. Enhance Communication in the Workplace 🤝
Communication is crucial to an organization. When the company has excellent internal communication, employees feel happy, informed, valued, inspired, and heard. It can also enhance productivity and teamwork.
You need a safe channel for sharing employee feedback between employees and superiors. Use communication tools to update, inform, and communicate with employees.
Also, don’t talk down to employees when you communicate with them. You need to speak to them like peers and make them want to engage and complete goals for your business.
You should also use communication to improve your business. You can do this with questionnaires and surveys. The easiest way to disperse these is with an employee engagement platform.
4. Give Recognition to Employees When They Perform Well 🏆
Most employees prefer recognition for their hard work instead of ignoring them. That’s why giving awards or rewards for their accomplishments would be a good idea. Congratulate them on their work anniversaries, promotions, perfect attendance, and other special events.
Also, consider their personal preferences to give them the recognition they want and deserve.
For example, people will have different preferences based on their age. A report by TeamStage found that younger employees want more life-oriented rewards, like credit cards and life insurance. In contrast, older employees want leisure-based rewards, like meals and holidays.
5. Address Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)
All organizations must have DEI because it affects everyone and adds to high engagement.
Without DEI, there will be disunity, lack of cooperation, and decreased productivity. That’s why each organization should implement measures to address issues related to DEI.
Employee engagement platforms are brilliant for addressing DEI because they have guidelines to inform your employees about acceptable behavior.
Also, you must set an example yourself. If your company needs to change and be more inclusive, that change must start with you.
6. Improve Efficiency in the Workplace
By using outdated equipment and inefficient processes, employees’ productivity and quality of work will decrease. So, you should invest in the right technology and refine or alter your processes.
In a survey by Gartner, they determined that 65% of Australian employees are comfortable using digital technology at work. Also, although there will likely be a range of employee ages at your business, most of them will be comfortable using digital technology to improve their efficiency.
Source: Gartner
7. Build a Good Company Culture
When your company has a good culture, the employees understand its expectations of them and what they need to work towards. They also feel more confident to contribute new ideas. It also makes for a good employee experience at work.
The organization should be “employee-centric” to make their staff feel more belonging, empowered, and proud. It also improves productivity, employee retention, and customer satisfaction.
8. Create Team Activities for Employees 👫
People want to feel like they belong. Having team activities is an excellent way to make them think that. The activities can build and improve relationships so employees feel more engaged.
If the employees work from home, you can host virtual events.
Meanwhile, if they are working in the office, you can have a team lunch, volunteer activities, or other types of team-building activities that they will learn from and enjoy.
Here are some examples of team-building activities to give you some starter ideas.
9. Take Care of Employee Well-being 🍎
The staff will feel motivated and engaged to work for a company if they know they are important and cared for. That’s why it’s essential to implement wellness initiatives to enhance employees’ well-being.
Additionally, Australian employees’ financial and physical health levels are lower than ever before, according to a Gartner survey. For financial health, 22.5% of employees are happy. It’s 25.3% for physical wellness.
Examples of wellness initiatives that you can have are:
- Health screenings
- Health education
- Health Interventions
- Sporting teams
- Fitness classes
10. Offer Flexibility Options to Employees
Many employees prefer working from home and on flexible work hours.
So, if possible, provide that opportunity to them. Flexibility increases employee engagement and helps enhance their productivity, motivation, and work-life balance.Use tools such as Tommy to make scheduling more manageable for your employees.
11. Provide Professional Development Opportunities to Employees
Employees will never experience genuine engagement and job satisfaction at work if they stay in the same place. They need to learn new things and develop into a better operator than before.
Therefore, you need to provide professional development opportunities for them. If you don’t believe your employees can learn and grow, they will lack self-confidence.
You can present multiple professional development opportunities to employees, but the ones you can access depend on your available resources. Here are some examples of professional development opportunities you can provide employees.
12. Provide Leadership Training to Managers
As well as engaging lower-level employees, do the same for managers because an excellent management team can take a business to the next level and be the main drivers of employee engagement.
To create good leaders, you can send them on training courses. However, you must ensure that the training instills the correct management style in them. For example, if their management style is aggressive, it will not help to engage any employees.
Instead, you must teach them to manage employees in an approachable manner, be supportive, and trust them to do their jobs.
13. Provide Mental Health Support for Employees 🧠
Employee mental health took a massive hit during the COVID-19 Pandemic, so it is crucial to focus on it and create a work environment where they feel happy and safe.
According to a Black Dog Institute Report, 15% of young Australian workers reported signs of psychological distress. During the pandemic, this percentage grew to 30%.
Source: The Black Dog Insitute
Employee engagement platforms will often have features to help employee mental health. Some other options to consider include:
- Conducting training for mental health awareness. Doing this will make employees with mental health conditions more comfortable. It will also help to create a tolerant and accepting work environment.
- Offering therapy and counseling to employees who need it.
- Flexible working arrangements can improve employee mental health if they need a break from the office.
- Create a quiet space at work for employees to destress and relax.
- Balance employee workloads fairly so you are not putting too much pressure on anyone.
- Establish multiple peer support networks so employees can support each other during work.
- Check in regularly with employees to see if they are happy at work and willing to discuss their mental health.
14. Create Community Outreach Opportunities for Employees
Despite the work employees do at your business being crucial from your perspective, they may sometimes feel that their efforts aren’t that meaningful.
Therefore, arrange community outreach opportunities so they can feel a sense of purpose outside of work.
For example, you can set up volunteering schemes so employees can help out in their local community. You can even offer them paid volunteering days off to give them time to do this.
Another option is donation drives, encouraging employees to donate unwanted household items and clothes to give to charity shops.
You can also fundraise company-wide to give money to a charity.
Final Thoughts on How to Best Engage Your Employees
It’s important to be a company that drives employee engagement because it affects the whole organization.
Our tips help you get the best start to enhance employee engagement in your company.
If you have any other questions on engaging employees in your company, check out our blog on Tommy.
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USA 
USA 
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IN