It is normal for employees to switch careers and take off days. But when your employees are constantly checking out and leaving, then there might be an issue.
At this point, it becomes important to learn to develop an Employee Engagement strategy for your staff.
If you have not heard about it before, employee engagement is the level to which your employees are motivated, invested, and passionate about their work.
Employee engagement also shows you the level of commitment an individual has to your company and how they connect with coworkers.
A high level of employee engagement means better productivity, retention rates, and satisfied employees. This means everyone, including your company, benefits.
So, how do you achieve this? We’ll walk you through 10 steps to achieving high employee engagement and how to implement them. Then, we’ll show you how to measure your level of employee engagement so you can alter your strategies if necessary.
Now, let’s begin.
Collect feedback with JustFeedback
JustFeedback helps your business increase profits and reduce risk by improving your customer experience
1. Create an employee engagement strategy
Like any plan you wish to achieve in an organization, you must create a strategy for your engagement initiatives. Note that this strategy can only be successful if management understands what you hope to accomplish.
This means you’ll want to properly communicate this strategy by following these points:
- What is the employee engagement strategy, and what does the organization hope to achieve with it?
- How do you plan to carry it out?
- Will there be measurement metrics like individual employee surveys or one-on-one meetings?
- How will the company improve the metrics after measurement?Ensure the strategy is as extensive as possible so everyone concerned will have no problems understanding the objective.
2. Encourage two way communication
Companies with great employee engagement have an open line of communication with employees. This means the employees have a voice, listen to what they have to say, and address any issues they have.
So, why is this important?
When employees observe that you value their opinions, and make changes based on their feedback, they feel recognized and develop trust for the company. They’ll also want to go out of their way to help the organization achieve its goals.
To allow for easy communication, provide employees a chance to communicate and give feedback in one-on-one and group settings. Also provide outlets where they can provide their honest feedback confidentially and without judgement.
Great options for employee feedback include pulse surveys and AI-powered chatbots.
Aside from the benefit of ensuring accurate employee feedback, your managers can quickly provide solutions for better employee experience.
3. Recognize and reward employees
Recognizing and rewarding employees for the effort they put into your organization is another key engagement driver. Employees who experience this understand they the company values and appreciates them – thus creating engaged employees.
Implementing this in your organization is very easy. Recognizing an employee and letting them know they are doing great work does not take most time and costs nothing. Do this correctly, and the employee will know what they are doing right and continue with it.
They’ll also know that the management has seen and appreciated their efforts.
Remember that recognition needs to be genuine, fulfilling, impactful and aligned with the work culture. Here are a few ways to do this right and get an engaged employee:
- Celebrate significant achievements, finished projects and innovative ideas
- Don’t offer recognition in a manner that puts other employees down
- Ensure recognition is given to the individual or team involved in achieving the milestone.
But while recognition may be great, adding a little incentive in the form of rewards can take it to the next step. When employees are rewarded by a company they work with, they feel valued since the organization is willing to invest in them.
You don’t have to go overboard with rewards either. Small gifts and other fun activities are enough to make employes valued and part of a team. For instance, an extra paid day off, a paid vacation, or thoughtful gift items can easily bring about employee satisfaction.
4. Build an inclusive and diverse team
An inclusive and diverse workplace that does not discriminate can easily become engaging. When employees see that your organization values them regardless of their background, employee satisfaction tends to improve.
Ensure you promote diversity of backgrounds and thoughts during your recruitment process and avoid bias. Your work environment should be one where every employee feels they belong.
This will require you to ensure all employees get the same opportunities and are treated fairly and respectfully.
5. Provide training to help employees grow
One reason why many companies don’t have enough employee engagement is due to better career opportunities. If your company is not encouraging its employees to grow within the company, they’ll find it elsewhere.
To avoid this and boost employee engagement, create a path to train and develop employees. This will improve the retention rate of employees and allow them to become more committed to your organization.
And as you know, a committed employee is more likely to be engaged.
Observe your employees and spot their unique skills, motivations, and interests. The more you know about the personal career goals of employees, the easier it is to provide unique opportunities to help them grow.
Here are a few ways to provide training and encourage growth in your company:
- Encourage managers to learn about the career goals and objectives of employees, as this drives engagement
- Ensure managers provide development and training opportunities during meetings so employees can stay engaged.
- Make certain that new jobs are first published in-house before looking elsewhere.
- Reward managers that help employees grow. This will encourage them to put more effort into improving employee engagement.
6. Focus on employee well-being
Employee well-being includes financial, emotional, physiological, physical, and social wellness. If an employee feels great in all these areas, he/she is more likely to put in their best into your organization.
This means it is important to encourage the well-being of employees at an individual and group level. Taking frequent breaks to allow co-workers and managers to socialize is a great way to achieve this.
You may also want to incorporate team-building activities when possible, as this can strengthen bonds which in turn drives engagement. If an employee cares about the company /team he/she works with, they will stay engaged and likely to remain.
Also have measures in place to prevent employee well-being from dropping.
Aside from the benefit of improved retention, happy and engaged employees make it easy for managers to do their jobs – thus ensuring seamless workflow and positive environment.
7. Encourage collaborative teamwork
Employees who work with a team in an organization have higher chances of being fully engaged. This means it is essential for you to encourage a team-based culture in your company. If employees work in a team, they tend to become like a family over time.
They learn to trust one another completely and accept the unique skills and talents each person brings. And because they are working to achieve the same objective, they tend to create a bond.
Employees who have bonded with one another will enjoy working and staying together.
A great way to develop a team culture is via team-building projects and activities. You can go on trips together, go on lunch, volunteer or play games that will allow employees to get to know each other better.
Engaging in fun activities will allow employees to see the fun side of co-workers and let them gain insights into who they really are.
They’ll learn about each other at a closer level, which will mean they get more comfortable working with one another – thus resulting in a successful team and workplace!
Lastly, ensure you allow employees to attend these events voluntarily. Forcing employees to team bonding events will only do the opposite of what you hope to achieve. Employees feel more receptive if they feel the choice is theirs.
8. Train managers on employee management
Managers play a critical role in shaping the overall levels of employee engagement in the organization. It is important to offer training that shows the importance of employee engagement efforts to the management team.
They should understand that any action they take from that position can affect the overall employee experience and performance. You’ll want the training to focus on proper communication, effective leadership skills, and creating a positive work culture.
If the people at the top of the organization fully understand why employee engagement is critical – and have the right skills to build on it, they can easily inspire employees and lead by example.
9. Start Employee Engagement from onboarding
Instead of trying to nurture employee engagement later in an individual’s work life, strive to start from the onboarding process. This is the start of an individual’s journey with the company, and you can easily shape how they see your organization at this point.
You’ll want an extensive onboarding process that gives staff insights into the values and culture of your workplace. Make sure you offer proper training and guidance during this period to help new employees feel confident in their roles.
If employees enjoy their onboarding experience, they are more likely to feel engaged and aligned with the company’s objectives from the start.
Companies that invest in engagement early will reap more benefits from the employees throughout their time there.
10. Offer a flexible work environment
Flexibility at work is another key driver of employee engagement. The pandemic has proven that flexibility is possible in the work environment.
This means employee engagement is sure to increase if you offer flexible work schedules and opportunities to work remotely. Staff who get this kind of flexibility will have a better work-life balance – which is what many crave.
In fact, 51% of employees would rather change careers to get a better work-life balance even if it means lower pay. If you offer employees remote work opportunities, they can enjoy more time with family or engage in other things they care about.
This level of consideration and flexibility will certainly improve employee engagement.
11. Track employee engagement
Measuring employee engagement is critical to helping you determine the level of engagement in your company. By using these measuring tools, you can get important feedback and work towards improving your employee engagement.
Here are a few helpful tools that can help you achieve this:
a. Pulse Employee Surveys
Here, the HR team depends on surveys to gain insights into employee engagement. This involves using scales and open-ended questions to ask employees how they perceive the work environment, communication, and leadership.
b. Employee Engagement Surveys
These are like pulse employee surveys in terms of the results. However, they take different approaches regarding frequency, scope, and length.
Employee engagement surveys focus on the entire company and are used less frequently than pulse surveys. They also take more time to complete since they are very extensive.
c. NPS Surveys
NPS surveys let you acknowledge how your employees feel about the workplace. These surveys are easy to navigate, fast, and are great for measuring employee engagement. They are also very precise and cost-effective.
However, while these types of surveys are easy to use, they don’t offer in-depth insights as to why employees may not be satisfied. Therefore, you must combine this survey with other measuring tools for the best results.
d. One-on-Ones
Carrying out one-on-one meetings with the management team is a great strategy for measuring engagement.
It offers employees an avenue to voice their concerns and offer feedback. For the managers, it creates an avenue to get insightful feedback and communicate with his/her team members.
e. Regular interviews
Collecting feedback from staff through interviews is a great way to measure and improve employee engagement. Many organizations only use interviews for new hires and those who want to exit.
But interviews don’t have to be limited to these periods alone. Through regular interviews, you can better understand the experience of new hires and continue to improve the onboarding process.
f. HR Consulting Providers
There are many third-party organizations that can help you measure engagement through surveys in your organization. They can also help you create an action plan based on the results of their findings.
If you are uncomfortable leaving your engagement strategy in-house, this is a great way to go. However, it has its limitations, too, as outsiders may miss some important information that may be spotted by your in-house team.
g. Employee Recognition
This is another indirect but helpful way to measure employee engagement. Frequent employee recognition in your organization can signify high employee engagement.
Note that while this is not an accurate way to measure engagement, it is still a great way to get useful insights.
h. Metrics
There are some metrics that you can measure to get a general idea of employee engagement in your business. While these are not in-depth, they are great for providing quick insights. Some of these include:
- Employee Turnover
- Employee satisfaction
- Employee ROI
- Absenteeism
- Diversity and Inclusion
For the best results, combine these with the other tools covered above. Together, they will provide you with an efficient strategy for measuring employee engagement.
Conclusion
Employee Engagement is very crucial for a business that is serious about success. Engaged employees are key to a thriving business since they are happy and invested in their work. Moreover, the positive feeling about their work results in improved well-being.
We’ve listed 10 helpful strategies that can help you boost your employee engagement level. Remember that one size does not fit all and you’ll need to combine two or more strategies for the best results.