Just clocking in, completing tasks, and leaving is not enough for today’s breed of employees. Instead, they crave genuine investment, enthusiasm, and a sense of connection and value from their employer. However, most employees don’t have that experience. We share 15 top employee engagement ideas that actually work.
According to the latest statistics from Gallup, only 33 percent of US workers are engaged in the workplace. Perhaps more alarmingly, 17 percent of employees are actively disengaged. And the cost to businesses is massive. Gallup estimates that not engaged or actively disengaged employees cost about $1.9 trillion in lost productivity. There are also knock-on impacts on employee morale, job satisfaction, company culture, and much more.
With such low levels of engaged employees, companies undoubtedly have lots of work to do. But where do you start? Today’s post takes the guesswork out of how to boost employee engagement.
Let’s dive right in by discussing why high employee engagement is so critical to business success.
Why Employee Engagement Matters
Remember the Great Resignation? Much of that high turnover was driven by workers wanting more for their employers and careers. Engaged employees report greater job satisfaction and alignment with company values.
However, it’s not just employee retention that stands to benefit from employee engagement initiatives. Here are the headline benefits you need to know:
- Enhance productivity
- Better quality outputs
- Lower absenteeism
- Improve employee retention
- Higher employee morale
- Increase revenue
- Positive all-round company culture
It stands to reason that an engaged employee is more motivated to give their best daily and go the extra mile. In fact, employees engaged and invested in their work can see company profitability increase by as much as 21 percent.
15 Effective Employee Engagement Ideas
Getting started may seem daunting. However, these 15 proven and actionable employee engagement strategies will kickstart your efforts.
1. Carry Out An Employee Engagement Survey And Monitor Progress
There’s only one way to find out what your people think about employee engagement, and that’s to ask them.
Question workers about their level of satisfaction and whether they have the tools and resources to carry out their work. Delve deep into team members’ relationships with line managers, which is one of the main drivers of employee engagement. And explore what you need to offer to retain employees.
Furthermore, encourage employees to get involved by sharing their own employee engagement ideas. There may be insights you haven’t yet considered.
Find out more in our blog, Employee Engagement Survey: Kickstart Employee Engagement In Your Business.
An engagement survey is a fantastic way to launch your employee engagement program. Not only will it boost employee engagement immediately, but it will also benchmark where you’re at. You can then use the data to measure your progress over time.
2. Harvest Employee Feedback
Don’t just stop at an annual survey. Instead, gather employee feedback as a regular part of your employee engagement activities.
One of the most effective ways to boost employee engagement is to gather feedback regularly. Surveys, pulse checks, snap polls, and Q&A sessions are excellent ways for encouraging employees to share their views and insights. Giving employees a voice makes them feel valued and as though their opinions matter.
However, only some feel comfortable sharing their views in an open forum. So, provide opportunities for workers to offer feedback anonymously in an employee engagement survey or during informal chats and one-to-ones.
3. Act On Employee Feedback
Gathering all that feedback is pointless if you fail to act on it. Your people will soon see it for what it is: lip service and nothing more, adding fuel to the fire of disengagement.
Organizations with a high number of engaged employees ensure workers know their views count and are acted on. Senior leadership follows through on feedback received with action.
Be sure to communicate your responses to staff and let them know what you’re doing. And if it’s not possible to act immediately, explain why. Team members will value your openness and transparency.
4. Embrace Work-Life Balance
One surefire way to increase employee engagement is to promote a healthy work-life balance.
Encourage employees to take their full quota of vacation leave and allow flexible work hours that accommodate workers’ personal lives. For example, workers could finish earlier to collect a child from school or take an extended lunch break to visit the dentist.
And remember your remote employees. Set clear virtual office hours so your remote workers know the boundaries.
Flexibility is good for business, as it makes your team members feel valued as individuals.
Embrace work-life balance, and your people will reward you with increased loyalty and engagement.
5. Invest In Professional Development
When it comes to making employees feel valued, investing in professional development opportunities is top of the to-do list. Workers who think the organization is invested in the future are less likely to become disgruntled and seek new pastures.
Train employees, set up lunch and learns, offer clear career paths, and invest in external programs. Moreover, mentorship and work shadowing programs are perfect for younger employees who are still deciding on their career goals.
Offering growth opportunities to workers is one of the most effective ways to improve employee engagement.
6. Promote Employee Health And Wellness
Promoting health and wellness isn’t just about demonstrating the value you place in your people. It also makes good business sense by impacting sickness and absenteeism.
It could be as simple as ensuring healthy snacks rather than the standard biscuits are readily available or introducing lunchtime yoga sessions. Many organizations offer on-site eye and health checks or workstation ergonomic assessments.
Promote health and wellness and you will also boost engagement throughout the workforce.
7. Encourage Team Building
Another great employee engagement idea may be an oldie, but it’s still a goldie. Team lunches and get-togethers help forge meaningful social relationships between colleagues and develop a workplace community. They also add a much-needed fun element to the mix.
Options to consider include the following:
- Order in pizza for a shared monthly lunch
- Go bowling or visit an escape room
- Throw a holiday-themed party for Halloween or an office Secret Santa
- Set up a workplace scavenger hunt
Remember to include your remote workers with hybrid options suitable for in-person and remote employees alike. How about an office trivia quiz, book club, or online bingo?
Check out our post Teams Celebrating: The How, What, And Why for more team-building ideas.
8. Prioritize Onboarding
The employee experience starts the moment they walk through the door on day one. Ensure new hires get off to a flying start with a robust onboarding program. And it’s even more important for remote workers who can feel disconnected from head office.
Whether in person or virtual, a warm welcome from senior leadership and coworkers is a must. Furthermore, new employees should have the tools, knowledge, training, and resources to do their jobs properly. An onboarding checklist is an excellent tool to ensure you don’t miss an important step.
Start engaging employees from day one and supercharge the employee experience with effective onboarding.
9. Employee Recognition
Did you know that 63 percent of workers who feel recognized at work are unlikely to look for new opportunities? Foster employee engagement by building a company culture of recognition and appreciation.
From formal recognition programs to informal shout-outs on team chat, engage employees by celebrating individual and team successes. Reward employees for their innovations or hard work with a public thank you, free lunch, or barista coffee on the company.
Appreciating your people’s efforts leads to improved job satisfaction, increased motivation, a positive company culture, and engaged employees who keep on delivering.
10. Develop Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) helps employees feel a sense of purpose and value beyond the daily routine. Why not get together a team to consider energy-saving tips or ways to reduce water consumption in the work environment?
Volunteering initiatives are another great employee engagement idea. Find a charity to support and give workers the opportunity to do good. Examples include:
- Helping the local food bank distribute aid
- Participating in a beach or park cleanup
- Teaching IT skills to care home residents.
CSR and volunteerism have many positive spinoffs, not just as an employee engagement idea. It improves team spirit and cohesion, helps workers develop new skills and enhances your employer brand. Employees feel a greater sense of achievement that drives motivation and engagement.
11. Reimagine Employee Performance
The often-dreaded yearly performance review can feel like a personal critique for many employees. Instead, consider integrating performance conversations into everyday business activities, such as one-to-ones, project reviews, and weekly standups.
These more informal mechanisms help employees feel engaged throughout the year and provide opportunities to develop employees with coaching and in-the-moment feedback.
12. Make Employees Part Of The Bigger Picture
Engaged employees understand how they contribute to company goals and objectives.
Make sure individual employee goals are aligned with company ones. That way, instead of feeling like just a cog in the wheel, workers appreciate how their input affects the work of other team members and the company mission.
13. Emphasize Output Over Input
Traditionally, performance management has focused on monitoring input, such as hours worked, rather than output. If you want to drive employee engagement, now’s the time to turn that on its head.
Emphasizing the end result empowers employees to work in ways that align with their lifestyle and personal needs, ultimately driving engagement.
Whether it’s finishing early to pick up the kids and logging back on later, allowing a team member to work when they are most productive will enable you to focus on quality rather than quantity.
14. Develop Open Communication Lines
Two-way communication is the lifeblood of employee engagement. One of the best employee engagement ideas is to get your people involved in the conversation with multiple open lines of communication.
Nowadays, employees connect to the organization in different ways and from different locations. Reach as many employees as possible with multi-channel distribution, including email, intranets, social media, instant messaging, and mobile apps. And improve relevancy with content targeted to individual employees based on role, location, or interests.
Above all, give workers opportunities to comment and provide feedback so they feel involved and valued.
15. Promote Collaboration
Our final employee engagement idea is to promote cross-team collaboration.
Workers who develop strong, positive relationships with coworkers tend to be more engaged with their workplace. Since these relationships form a significant part of their social interactions, it’s essential to create lots of opportunities for team members to collaborate and get to know one another.
Furthermore, employees learn new skills and knowledge when collaborating. And it also offers new challenges for team members who may otherwise be stuck in a rut. Collaborative projects are an excellent tool for keeping employees engaged.
Best Employee Engagement Ideas: Final Thoughts
There’s no magic formula guaranteeing engaged employees. Improving employee engagement is an ongoing process, requiring time and effort. Tailor the employee engagement ideas we have shared to suit your company values, experiment with new ideas of your own, and incrementally increase employee engagement.
Furthermore, you can also use these tried-and-tested engagement initiatives to keep employees engaged.
Remember, an engaged workforce is critical to achieving business success. Engaged employees feel motivated and committed, making staying the distance more likely.
And it’s well worth the effort. According to one study, for every five percent increase in employee engagement, there was a corresponding three percent increase in company revenue.
About MyHub
We are a leading provider of cloud intranet software. Under one virtual roof, you can access all the tools and features you need to keep employees engaged, including interactive newsfeeds, blogs, instant messaging, employee profiles, and much more.
Get started on your employee engagement activities with MyHub’s fully customizable and easy-to-use platform. Sign up for a free demo or 14-day trial today.
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