The Ultimate Employee Engagement Handbook

Introduction

Welcome to the dynamic world of employee engagement, where empowered teams drive remarkable success! In today’s competitive landscape, fostering a culture of engagement isn’t just a strategy; it’s a necessity. 

 

Did you know that organizations with highly engaged employees outperform their counterparts by 202%? That’s right – a staggering statistic that underscores the undeniable impact of engaged teams on productivity and profitability.

 

This article is your compass to navigate the exciting realm of employee engagement. We’ll explore actionable insights, proven techniques, and real-world examples that spotlight the transformative power of engaged employees. 

 

As we embark on this journey, prepare to unravel the remarkable potential that lies within your workforce, as together, we unlock unparalleled levels of commitment, creativity, and success. Let’s dive in and shape a future where engagement isn’t just a buzzword – it’s a way of thriving!

 

What is Employee Engagement?

Put simply, employee engagement is all about how employees relate to their job. An engaged employee feels a strong sense of purpose and motivation when they go to work. They can see how their efforts are helping the business to thrive and feel a sense of responsibility for its success.

 

Engaged employees don’t need additional motivation to go the extra mile. They roll up their sleeves and do what needs doing. You can tell who they are because they’re the go-getters who show up early each day.

 

In fact, you can measure employee engagement. It becomes most apparent in the end result of an employee’s work. Their job satisfaction, average productivity, and leadership performance are just a few factors. Engaged employees excel in all categories–and improve where they are lacking.

 

Conversely, an employee that is not engaged feels a disconnect. They are just trying to punch in their hours, regardless of their quality of work. They don’t feel a strong duty towards the organization or their fellow coworkers.

 

So what does employee engagement actually mean?

Employee engagement refers to the emotional and psychological commitment that an employee has towards their organization. It goes beyond mere job satisfaction and encompasses a deeper connection where employees are motivated, enthusiastic, and aligned with the goals and values of the company. An engaged employee is one who has an emotional investment in the company and wants to succeed for reasons other than a financial reward. 

 

To be even more succinct: An engaged employee cares. 

The more engaged an employee is, the more commitment and motivation they have to do their job well. An engaged employee is also far more likely to go above and beyond what is required of them simply because it will be beneficial to the business.

 

Key aspects of employee engagement include:

• Emotional Connection: Engaged employees feel a strong emotional bond with their work, team, and the organization. They are invested in their tasks and take pride in their contributions.
• Motivation and Enthusiasm: Engaged employees are motivated to do their best and exhibit a high level of enthusiasm. They actively seek out ways to improve their performance and contribute to the company’s success.
• Alignment with Organizational Goals: Engaged employees understand and believe in the organization’s mission, values, and objectives. They see their work as meaningful and aligned with the company’s larger purpose.
• Positive Workplace Relationships: Engaged employees tend to have strong relationships with their colleagues and supervisors. They collaborate effectively, communicate openly, and contribute to a positive work environment.
• Continuous Learning and Development: Engaged employees are often eager to learn, grow, and develop new skills. They view professional development as a way to enhance their contributions and advance their careers.
• Initiative and Innovation: Engaged employees are more likely to take initiative, offer innovative ideas, and actively participate in problem-solving and decision-making processes.
• Retention and Loyalty: Organizations with engaged employees typically experience higher levels of employee retention and loyalty. Engaged employees are less likely to seek opportunities elsewhere because they are satisfied and fulfilled in their current roles.

 

What is the Importance of Employee Engagement?

According to a recent survey, more than half of the U.S. workforce is currently made up of “quiet quitters.” This is turning into a real problem for many American companies. Quiet quitters are people who do the bare minimum at work just to get by. They don’t do anything to go above and beyond for the companies they work for. Due to quiet quitting, engagement for those 35 or younger has plummeted. Experts estimate a drop of 6% in just the past three years.

 

It’s pretty easy to see how poor engagement can be detrimental to your business. People might have limited enthusiasm, care little about their work, and do only the bare minimum. Productivity and profits suffer commensurately.

 

If you suspect you might have quiet quitters on your staff, you should strive to boost employee engagement. You should also learn the answer to the question, “Why is employee engagement important?”

 

• Increases Productivity

Over the last few years, the percentage of people who are actively engaged while at work has dropped. It’s gone from 36% in 2020 to 34% in 2021 to just 32% in 2022.

 

Business productivity is the metric companies focus on most. But little do they know that to achieve high productivity, you need good engagement.

 

Being highly productive is energy intensive. It requires strong focus over the long hours of a typical shift. People who are not engaged simply cannot give optimal productivity.

 

In the long run, this can lead to devastating effects. Employees can become burnt out or take part in the “quiet quitting” movement. They may be unresponsive to management’s efforts to revive their previous productivity streak.

 

Engaged employees, on the other hand, have a purpose for working hard. They see that their efforts are contributing to something larger than themselves. Even if the results take a while to manifest, they are willing to put in the effort.

 

Productivity soars when there is strong employee engagement. So if you want to improve your productivity, this should be one of the first metrics you try to fix.

 

• Improves Collaboration

When people are doing just enough at work not to get fired by their bosses, they typically tend to keep to themselves. Even if they’re having a problem with something, they won’t always bring it up to others because, quite frankly, that will take too much effort on their part.

Many people do not feel any affinity for their coworkers. To them, their coworkers are just individuals they need to small-talk with at the office. When the day is done, they wouldn’t even consider getting a beer with them.

 

This lack of association with coworkers has wide-reaching effects. Employees may trust their coworkers less. They do not feel a sense of personal connection or obligation to them. This means that collaboration is limited. Employees have less desire and incentive to work together. They are more likely to tackle projects on their own, leading to less favorable outcomes.

 

But when people are engaged in their workplaces, they’re going to be more likely to want to collaborate with others. When they’re having a problem with something, they’ll call a meeting and try to come up with a collaborative solution to it. People who trust each other work better together. That leads to more successful collaborative projects and, therefore, higher profits. 

 

Most businesses revolve around collaboration, which is another reason why you’re going to want to make sure your employees are as engaged at work as they can be. Employee engagement is inevitably going to lead to improved collaboration and better results overall.

 

• Achieves Goals

In order for your company to succeed, you’re going to need to get into the habit of setting business goals. You should have a set of yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly, and even daily goals.

 

You should also aim to have your employees set goals for themselves and strive to achieve them. It’ll increase their employee motivation and make it possible for them to see the progress they’re making as individuals.

 

By setting goals on both a company-wide and individual level, you can keep everyone who works for you engaged. You can also increase the chances of all these goals being met at some point.

 

• Discretionary Effort

Discretionary effort is the extra work employees put in beyond what’s required to help out their team and further their career. Disengaged employees put in no discretionary effort. They work exactly hard enough so that you won’t let them go.

 

That extra energy they don’t put into the job gets saved for other things, like a personal hobby or finding a position at another company.

 

Engaged employees make a habit of going above and beyond. They come into work with fresh ideas. They stay late and finish that project.

 

There’s no easy way that you can quantify discretionary effort because it looks different on every employee. What you can count on is that your business gets more done when you’ve got engaged employees.

 

• Eliminates Stress

As you’ve no doubt noticed by now, you’re going to have some selfish intentions for wanting your employees to be more engaged at work. Employee engagement is going to play a large part in your company’s success.

 

But you should also try to improve employee engagement for the sake of your employees themselves. This should be part of the corporate wellness program that you put together.

 

More than 80% of U.S. workers report feeling stressed out because of their jobs to some degree. You can help your employees deal with and even eliminate much of their stress by keeping them engaged at work.

 

Most people are still going to feel at least some stress at work, no matter how engaged they might be. But when people are engaged, they’re often less stressed than they would be otherwise.

 

• Decreases Burnout

You might not think that you would have to worry about disengaged employees at your company feeling burned out. But some of your employees might begin to feel burned out at work when they aren’t as engaged as they should be simply because they don’t get the sense that what they’re doing at work matters.

• Checkout employee burnout signs and solutions.

You have the opportunity to turn things around for them by showing them that their work does matter. Something like an employee engagement platform can work wonders for the mental well-being of the people who work for your company.

 

Even though some of your employees might start to work harder than they were before, it could decrease the burnout they were feeling. They’ll get the sense that they’re making an actual difference within your company, and that could lead to a spike in their employee engagement levels.

 

• Lowers Absenteeism

When you have employees who are genuinely sick, you should encourage them to stay home. You should also encourage employees to stay home when they feel like they could use mental health days to get their heads together.

 

But otherwise, you’re going to want to have as many employees in your offices as you can each and every day. Unfortunately, this might not be possible when you have low employee engagement.

 

When your employees aren’t engaged, they’re going to begin to call out of work for the littlest things. They might even make up excuses just to get out of having to come to work for a day or two.

 

When you’re able to keep your employees engaged, they’ll be less likely to want to call out of work unnecessarily. They’ll feel a pull to come to work because they won’t want to miss any of the exciting things that you have going on.

 

• Reduces Turnover

Are you always having employees leave your company and having to hire replacements for them? This can be very time-consuming and could be costing your company a pretty penny each year.

 

Turnover is the bane of HR departments the world over. It refers to how long new employees last and how often you have to replace them. Naturally, high turnover is about the worst thing imaginable for a business that wants a robust workforce.

 

For starters, it’s a huge waste of resources and time. Training one person can take months and hundreds of dollars. If they quit, all of that goes to waste.

 

Further, turnover functions like a brain drain for a company. It takes intelligent people who have solid insider knowledge and sends them out the door. Significant turnover can reduce a workforce’s overall company knowledge and make it very hard to bounce back.

 

You should take a step back and ask why so many of your employees are leaving. If you get the sense it could be because they’re not engaged enough at work, turning the engagement dial up a few notches could reverse this trend.

 

You’ll find that employees will want to stay with your company for longer stretches of time when they’re engaged and enjoy what they do. You won’t need to worry about turnover taking such a big toll on your company anymore.

 

• Establishes Loyalty

People might not ever be as loyal to the companies that they work for as they used to be. The days of people staying with the same companies for 40 or 50 years seem like they might be over.

 

But when you provide people with a fun place to work that keeps them engaged, they’re going to have at least some loyalty to your company. They’ll be more likely to stick around for a longer time at your company, and they’ll also be more than happy to give your company glowing recommendations when people ask about working at it.

 

• Enables Recruitment

If your employees aren’t engaged when they’re at work and people outside your company find out about it, how do you think it’s going to reflect on you? As you might guess, people aren’t exactly going to be banging down your company’s doors looking for jobs.

 

But if people are always hearing about what a great company culture you have and how engaged your employees are, what do you think that might do for your company? It should make recruiting the best employees possible a breeze. You won’t have any trouble getting talented people to come and work for your company.

 

• Encourages Optimism

You want the future of your company to look as bright as it possibly can. But it’s going to be difficult for you or anyone else to have much optimism when employee engagement is down dramatically among your staff.

 

Even if the future of your company might be in a little bit of doubt, keeping your employees engaged will make everyone feel like things are looking up. They’ll be so much more motivated to do a great job and to play their small part in helping your company to succeed. It’s just one more reason why employee engagement is so important.

 

• Creates a Better Work-Life Balance

Work-life balance is a tricky problem to solve, both for businesses and individuals. Businesses struggle to find the right scheduling requirements and workload for employees. Employees struggle to balance their personal life outside their work endeavors.

 

One of the big contributing factors to poor work-life balance is a lack of engagement. Employees feel like they spend too much time at work, little of which is meaningful. They see their job as a drain on their happiness and free time.

 

In their off-hours, they are trying to recover from work. They bury themselves in entertaining distractions to forget the job they hate. This makes it almost impossible for them to balance work with their personal life.

 

Engaged employees don’t struggle to find the right balance. Part of this is because they have internalized their work as part of who they are. The boundary between work and personal time is less defined.

 

This makes it easier for them to devote more time to work or personal life as the need arises. They can shift from one to the other with ease. They no longer sacrifice their sleep for more free time nor take long restroom breaks to shirk their work duties.

 

• Creates trust and buy-in with company leadership

Trust is earned, and that remains true in the workplace. People will not stand behind a leader they do not feel has earned their trust. They may accept marching orders, but deep down, there is a divide between them.

 

As you can imagine, this does not create a fluid working environment. Instead, it forms an invisible wall between employees and upper management. This wall only grows when employees lack engagement.

 

Employees who are not engaged tend not to feel much toward their leaders. They are just there to collect a paycheck, nothing more. They have less desire to cooperate and obey leadership.

 

Engaged employees are more likely to keep to the chain of command. They will trust those who oversee them and give deference where necessary. Overall, this creates a more effective bureaucracy–orders come down, and they obey with alacrity.

 

• It Improves Company Culture

Everyone wants to work in a company that feels like Google or Apple. They want to be excited to come into work and mingle with coworkers in a laidback office environment. They hope for a space that accommodates employees with amenities, activities, and even competitions.

 

However, good company culture is much more than pizza parties and free movie tickets. It’s about how employees thrive on the work floor. Good work culture is the one unique thing that separates your company from all the others.

 

Company culture is not something you can buy. It’s something that occurs organically over the passage of time. Most of all, it is a creation of both leaders and the people they hire.

 

Engagement leads to stronger company culture, period. Engaged workers find ways to make the workplace better. They create a stronger balance between work and play.

 

A notable company culture is one that new hires will hear about in the news. It makes positions at your company quite competitive. You may get much higher-quality candidates if you give the impression of a fun workplace.

 

What Drives Employee Engagement?

The national average for annual turnover rate was around 47% in 2021. In recent years, this number has been steadily increasing.

 

If you are an owner of a business or run an organization, this is not a number you want to see increasing. One way to ensure it doesn’t is to learn more about employee engagement drivers to keep your employees engaged.

 

But what drives employee engagement? Keep reading to learn more about this and how it can affect company performance overall!

There are many different factors that can drive employee engagement in the workplace.

 

From intrinsic motivation to external motivators and the leadership within the company to the entire culture of the organization, multiple factors matter.

 

• Culture of the Organization

One of the biggest employee engagement drivers is the culture of the organization as a whole.

 

Every organization has its own culture and values within the company. The culture of an organization has a lot to do with how people and coworkers interact with one another, the communication of everyone in the office, the ability to speak up if need be, and more.

 

For instance, if someone wants to share a new idea, the ability for them to do that in an open space demonstrates a great organizational culture. On the other hand, if someone is worried about speaking up about an idea, this is probably a more toxic culture.

 

Depending on how employees feel about the culture of an organization, this can impact their engagement in the company. If they don’t feel like they love the culture or fit into the best of their ability, they may not engage as much. They could keep themselves a bit more at a distance.

 

• Specific Industry

Every industry is going to have a different reason for why employees feel engaged in the company. For instance, someone who’s working at a nonprofit organization may feel that the work needs to be meaningful in order to be engaged. However, an engineer may feel more engaged when dealing with safety in the workplace.

 

This is why focusing on your specific industry when dealing with employee engagement is important. There are different reasons that people may feel engaged in the organization. This could be different across industries or even in the same industry.

 

Engagement can differ on an individual level as well.

 

Depending on your industry, it may be beneficial to ask your employees through a survey about what keeps them engaged. This is a great way to feel out how they are doing and give you feedback on what you can improve upon within your organization.

 

• Career Paths

Every individual’s career path is going to differ. Some people simply consider their job a place that they go to to make money. Other people consider their job a career that they want to continue to progress in.

 

This means that these individuals within your own organization are going to be motivated by different things. What drives their employee engagement is different.

 

So how does this change the type of engagement that drives employees?

 

Let’s dive a little deeper.

 

If an employee is just starting out, they may not know exactly what they want out of their career path. That means that they are going to most likely consider compensation a main factor in their job and career path. That, along with strong leaders to help them hone in on their skills, will be drivers of engagement.

 

However, someone who is further along in their career may prioritize relationships with coworkers. Having friendships and people to rely on once you feel a bit more established could become a driver for engagement at the company.

 

• Intrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic motivation comes from within an individual. This can drive employee engagement for some people, but is not going to for everyone. If someone doesn’t have that intrinsic motivation, they will need other drivers for engagement.

 

But for someone that has a lot of intrinsic motivation, they are motivated to do well for themselves without external factors. This internal motivation provides them with a sense of meaningfulness. And the more they do or get done, the more they will find value in the process or the organization.

 

Intrinsic motivation is also a huge motivator for those who have it in challenging times. If there are difficult times in the workplace, the motivation that comes from within will keep these people engaged and driven.

 

• Type of Leadership

Leadership is going to look different in every company. This means that they were going to be different roles as well as people filling those roles.

 

Many people are driven to be more engaged by specific leaders. On the other hand, many people are actually the opposite if the leaders are not being true leaders.

 

This means that leadership in a company is a vital component of what drives employee engagement.

 

Let’s take this a step further.

 

If there is a leader in your organization that tells people what to do but doesn’t follow through on it or follow their own advice, this could impact employee engagement in a negative way. Leaders who are unorganized, do not conduct themselves properly, or cannot communicate are examples of the type of leader that may negatively impact employees.

 

So what kind of leader does it take to positively impact employee engagement?

 

Leaders who know how to communicate, have strong relationships with team members, lead by example, and conduct themselves in a positive and energetic way will drive more employee engagement. If people feel that they can trust a leader or relate to one, they are more likely going to be invested more than they would otherwise.

 

• External Incentives

Of course, there are always external incentives that are going to drive employee engagement. As much as we’d like to believe that these factors do not contribute, they definitely do. For instance, if you offer higher pay, someone is most likely going to be more interested and engaged to keep that pay than if you paid them $10,000 less.

 

On top of a higher salary, offering bonuses and incentive pay is also a huge external incentive to drive employee engagement. For instance, if an employee knows that if they reach a specific sales threshold that they will get a bonus, they are most likely going to do everything they can to get there.

 

This will also benefit your business and your overall success. This is why it pays to treat your employees well!

 

The more they are incentivized, the more productive they will be. A boost in employee engagement and productivity means the company will be better off, which is the end goal!

 

So what else can you offer as a company for more external incentives? Try the following to drive employee engagement:

 

• Offer better benefits than the competition
• Increase competition among staff with higher-stakes incentives
• Give out yearly bonuses based on performance
• Give out prizes or free things throughout the course of the year depending on what employees like or need
• Create out-of-office incentives like fitness programs

 

These incentives can boost employee engagement.

 

• Brand Alignment

Although this may not be one that stands out right away, how aligned a brand is with its mission can also impact employee engagement.

 

If an employee discovers or feels that an organization is not acting consistently with its brand image, it may cause an employee to generate distrust or unease toward the organization. When that happens, productivity and engagement in the company often wane.

 

To keep employees engaged, you want to ensure that your organization is in alignment with your brand image. There needs to be a real connection that employees can see and feel.

 

Additionally, many people like to work and spend time doing something for the overall good, which means that the more you are focusing on this as an organization, the more employees will feel purpose and engagement in the company.

 

To put it simply, your organization should live out the brand image in everything that you do.

 

Measuring Employee Engagement

Measuring employee engagement is a strategic imperative for organizations committed to cultivating a thriving and productive workforce. By assessing the level of emotional commitment, motivation, and alignment within the workforce, businesses can gain valuable insights into their employees’ overall satisfaction and the effectiveness of their engagement initiatives.

 

A robust employee engagement measurement process involves a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods that delve into various dimensions of the employee experience. Surveys, for instance, serve as a foundational tool, offering a structured approach to gather quantitative data on aspects such as job satisfaction, sense of belonging, and alignment with the company’s values and goals. These surveys provide a snapshot of overall engagement levels and help identify trends over time.

 

Qualitative methods complement the quantitative data by offering deeper insights into the underlying reasons behind engagement levels. Focus groups, one-on-one interviews, and open-ended survey questions allow employees to share their thoughts, perceptions, and suggestions. These qualitative insights can uncover nuances that quantitative data might miss, shedding light on specific areas for improvement or initiatives that are particularly resonating with the workforce.

 

How to Measure Employee Engagement?

 

• Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS):

The Employee Net Promoter Score is adapted from the well-known Net Promoter Score used in customer satisfaction assessments. It asks employees a simple question: “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our organization as a place to work?” Based on their responses, employees are categorized into three groups:

 

• Promoters (9-10): These employees are highly engaged and enthusiastic about the organization. They’re likely to recommend it to others.
• Passives (7-8): These employees are somewhat satisfied but not necessarily committed. They are neutral in their recommendations.
• Detractors (0-6): These employees are disengaged and dissatisfied, and they might even share negative feedback.

The eNPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters. This is a fantastic resource that can save your company time and money when it comes to filling job openings. A higher eNPS indicates a more engaged workforce. However, if this net promoter score is not high, people may end up being wary about working for your company.

 

The reason why your employees can have a huge impact on recruiting is that humans tend to trust the opinions of their friends and family. About 88% of people trust the opinions of these people more than anybody else.

 

So, when this net promoter score is low, it means that you could be losing out on future assets for your company. Whether this is because people do not actively know about your work environment or are actively deterred by it, either case results in a negative impact on your company.

 

Take the time to do some research on this to get an idea of how likely employees are to recommend your company to someone they know as a place to work.

 

• Engagement Survey Scores:

Engagement surveys consist of a series of questions designed to assess various dimensions of employee engagement. These questions cover aspects such as job satisfaction, work environment, relationship with colleagues and supervisors, growth opportunities, and alignment with the organization’s values and goals. The responses are typically measured on a Likert scale (e.g., strongly disagree to strongly agree).

 

The scores are analyzed individually and collectively to gain insights into specific areas of strength and areas needing improvement. For instance, lower scores in questions related to career growth might highlight a need for better professional development opportunities.

 

Sometimes, employees are afraid to speak up about certain issues because of the consequences that can be attached to them. Employees may be afraid of making their bosses upset if they try to confront them about a legitimate issue that they have.

 

However, employee feedback is crucial for making a company the best that it can be. As an owner or manager, you have to come up with a way that an employee can do this without fearing the consequences. This is where an anonymous survey can help you.

 

These are easy enough to make online and you can set it up as to where employees are free to respond to the questions anonymously. Doing this can help you get a better idea of if there are major issues that need to be addressed.

 

A good example is when employees feel like they are not secure enough to be fully invested in your company. This can be because they think their pay is too low or because they do not have enough benefits.

 

Examples of the latter include lack of coverage on their employee health plan, no work-life balance, the lack of paid vacation, not being able to work from home, and more.

 

• Participation Rates:

Participation rates measure the percentage of employees who actively engage in the employee engagement surveys or initiatives. Higher participation rates often indicate a healthier level of interest and engagement within the workforce.

 

Low participation rates might suggest disinterest, lack of trust, or skepticism about the value of such initiatives. Organizations strive to encourage higher participation to ensure that the data collected is representative and meaningful.

 

• Turnover Rates:

Employee turnover, or attrition, is a critical metric in understanding engagement. High turnover rates can be indicative of employee dissatisfaction and lack of engagement. 

You do not want to be known as a company that has a high turnover rate.

 

It sends a message to people outside of your company who are looking for jobs that your company is not a stable place to work. One way or another, these employees eventually hit a breaking point and end up quitting or taking a better job offer.

 

Not only is it bad for a company’s reputation to have high turnover but it also gets very expensive. It can often cost a company twice that employee’s salary to replace them once they quit.

 

There are a few things that go into this. The first is that if an employee quits, a company now has to spend time and money finding somebody to replace that employee.

 

Then, a company has to spend time and money training a new employee on how to do the old employee’s job. It can even lead to a manager or a strong employee in the same department having to take time out of their days to help with new employees.

 

As a result, it can lead to the entire team’s chemistry being thrown off until the new employee is settled in. That employee may not have the same productivity as the old employee for several months. The people around them may not be able to have the same productivity because they have to help the new employee.

 

In other words, your company needs to take a close look at your employee turnover rate and address it if it is too high.

 

By analyzing turnover rates alongside engagement survey data, organizations can identify patterns and correlations between engagement levels and employee retention.

 

• Absenteeism Rates:

Absenteeism refers to the frequency and duration of employee absences from work. High absenteeism rates may suggest disengagement or low morale. Engaged employees are generally more committed to their roles and are less likely to take unscheduled leaves.

 

Monitoring absenteeism rates can help organizations gauge the overall well-being and engagement of their workforce. Persistent or sudden spikes in absenteeism might warrant closer examination of underlying issues.

 

• Performance Metrics:

Employee performance metrics, such as productivity, quality of work, customer satisfaction scores, and sales figures, can provide insights into the impact of engagement on job outcomes.

 

Engaged employees tend to be more motivated and committed, resulting in improved performance. Analyzing these metrics in relation to engagement levels can help organizations understand the tangible benefits of fostering an engaged workforce.

 

• Employee Feedback and Suggestions:

Qualitative data from employee feedback channels, such as suggestion boxes, focus groups, or one-on-one discussions, can provide valuable insights into engagement. Employees who actively contribute suggestions or share concerns are likely engaged and invested in the organization’s success.

 

Analyzing the themes and sentiments in employee feedback can help organizations address specific pain points and make informed decisions to enhance engagement.

 

• Social Interaction

An important part of building team chemistry is for employees to communicate with each other. This can be for formal purposes such as tasks that have to be done for their jobs. Or, this can be informal such as a conversation by the water cooler about the game last night.

 

Both of these things are important and can help improve team chemistry. While this is a difficult metric to break down by the numbers, it can be something a manager observes walking around an office floor. If you are a manager that does this, keep an eye on any noticeable changes in behavior.

 

An example can be if your team is usually willing to help another employee out with tasks that do not have to do with your job. If you notice an employee or two getting more resistant to this idea, it could be a sign that they are starting to disengage from the company.

 

Another example can be an employee who puts up good productivity numbers but seldom talks to any other employee. It could signal that they are willing to do the minimum to get their job done but are not willing to invest deeper in your company.

 

If a situation like one of the above examples comes up, sit an employee down and see if you can figure out if there are any lingering issues there.

 

• Analyzing the Data

Once you’ve gathered all of the data, it’s important to analyze it and draw meaningful conclusions. Look for any patterns in employee satisfaction, performance, or productivity levels that could be indicative of a larger issue.

 

If people don’t seem very interested in their work, you can try activities to get them more excited. These could be things like playing games together or learning new skills that can help their job.

 

• Monitoring Changes Over Time

To truly gauge the success of your employee engagement initiatives, you should also measure employee engagement over time. This can be done by conducting regular surveys or focus groups to evaluate how employees are feeling about their work.

 

By monitoring these changes, you’ll have a better understanding of whether your efforts are effective in improving employee engagement.

 

Measuring employee engagement isn’t a one-time event; it’s an ongoing process that requires regular assessment and adjustment. By analyzing the collected data, organizations can identify areas of strength and areas that need improvement, enabling them to tailor engagement strategies and initiatives to create a more fulfilling and motivating work environment. 

 

4 Pillars of Employee Engagement

 

The concept of employee engagement rests upon four foundational pillars that collectively create a framework for cultivating a motivated, dedicated, and productive workforce. These pillars serve as the cornerstones of a holistic approach to employee engagement, ensuring that organizations create an environment where employees thrive and contribute to the organization’s success. 

Let’s explore each of these pillars in detail:

 

• Culture:

Culture forms the heart of any organization. It encompasses the shared values, beliefs, norms, and behaviors that define how things are done within the company. An engaging workplace culture fosters an environment where employees feel a strong sense of belonging and alignment with the organization’s mission and vision. A positive culture promotes open communication, mutual respect, and a genuine appreciation for diverse perspectives.

 

To strengthen the culture pillar of employee engagement, organizations should prioritize creating a supportive and inclusive work environment, where employees feel valued, empowered, and inspired to contribute their best.

 

• Alignment:

Alignment refers to the harmony between an employee’s individual goals and aspirations and the organization’s objectives. Engaged employees understand how their roles contribute to the bigger picture and see a clear connection between their efforts and the company’s success. When employees feel that their work matters and that they are making a meaningful impact, their engagement levels rise.

 

Organizations can enhance alignment by setting clear goals, providing regular feedback and recognition, and facilitating opportunities for employees to contribute innovative ideas and solutions.

 

• Connection:

Building strong interpersonal relationships is a fundamental element of employee engagement. A sense of connection and camaraderie among colleagues fosters a supportive and collaborative work environment. Engaged employees feel valued and appreciated by their peers, supervisors, and the organization as a whole.

 

Organizations can promote connection by encouraging team-building activities, creating spaces for informal interactions, and providing platforms for employees to share experiences and learn from one another.

 

• Accountability:

Accountability is crucial for employee engagement as it empowers individuals to take ownership of their work and results. Engaged employees understand the importance of their responsibilities and take pride in delivering high-quality outcomes. When employees are held accountable for their actions, they are more likely to feel motivated and committed to achieving their goals.

 

Organizations can foster accountability by setting clear performance expectations, providing the necessary resources and support, and recognizing and rewarding employees who consistently demonstrate responsibility and commitment.

 

By nurturing these four pillars of employee engagement—Culture, Alignment, Connection, and Accountability—organizations create a comprehensive framework that empowers employees to thrive, contribute their best efforts, and feel a strong sense of purpose within the organization. As each pillar reinforces the others, they collectively build a solid foundation for a dynamic and engaged workforce, driving sustained success and growth.

 

Key Elements of Employee Engagement

A recent poll conducted by Gallup surveyed 67,000 employees and found that only 32% of respondents felt engaged in the workplace. This represents a 4% decrease from the 36% reported in 2020.

 

This could be due, in part, to a number of different factors such as the increase in remote working conditions available. Many workplace organizations fail to identify and properly address the key elements of employee engagement.

 

It may also be attributed to a lack of interest in employee well-being on the part of the company. Another reason for this could be because of poor or inadequate employee recognition programs. 78% of employees cited that being recognized makes them feel more motivated in their job.

 

It’s important to understand the key elements of employee engagement. This can help you identify the best ways to keep employees happy and improve employee retention rates. It also allows you to create and maintain a better work-life balance for your employees.

 

Interested in learning more about the key elements of employee engagement? Here are 6 important elements of employee engagement. 

 

1. Good Communication

Communication is one of the most vital elements of employee engagement. Employees don’t want to work in an environment where they are forced to play “Guess What I’m Thinking” with the management and their other co-workers. This can create stress for employees who think they are always messing up and lead to higher turnover rates.

 

Having a clear system of communication ensures that employees are always up to speed on the progress of current projects. It also serves to keep employees updated on current policies, as well as any upcoming events. Communication should always be done in a timely manner so employees aren’t left to wonder and assume.

 

Employees also want to know that they play an important role in the organization. So, it is crucial that any business organization communicates to them often how valued they are.

 

It is especially important to share any relevant manager feedback. This can be accomplished in person or through an employee chat portal or work email setup.

 

You must be sure to clearly communicate the core values and expectations of your organization. This will go along with the mission and overall vision of your company. In doing this, you are helping the employee to better connect themselves to your organization.

 

Employees who feel more engaged through effective communication practices are more productive. They produce higher-quality work and make fewer mistakes as a result.

 

2. Strong Leadership

Often in workplace environments, there is a clearcut hierarchy of workers, managers, and other personnel. Employees look to those above them as a source of inspiration and wisdom. That is why leadership is another part of the fundamental elements of employee engagement.

 

Leading by example is one of the most powerful and impactful things you can do for your employees. A strong leader embodies all of the best traits employees themselves should strive to have in their day-to-day working lives.

 

Strong leadership encompasses many positive characteristics such as:

 

• Confidence
• Humility
• Integrity
• Accountability
• Good listening skills
• Decisiveness

Managers who are wishy-washy or frequently indecisive in their actions can hurt workplace cohesiveness. It can make employees question their leadership abilities.

 

Employees can quickly become disengaged in the workplace. This is particularly true if they don’t believe they have adequate management support. Those who display strong leadership traits will earn the respect of their employees.

 

However, a manager or other leader should not have to resort to drill sergeant tendencies and yell and scream at their employees either. This can put them off and make them want to disconnect even further. Rather, someone who displays strong leadership must also possess a high emotional IQ.

 

An emotional IQ refers to one’s ability to connect with others and manage their own emotions effectively. Someone with a high emotional intelligence handles emotional connections empathetically and fairly. They are able to problem-solve and remain cool under pressure.

 

3. Focus on Employee Well-Being

These days, you hear a lot about the importance of employee health and well-being. This involves both the physical and the mental aspects. Maybe you yourself have needed to take a personal day or mental health day of your own.

 

These aren’t just trendy buzzwords. The days of employees burning out left and right because of an unhealthy and unrealistic work-life balance are over. It is part of a growing movement with a focus on improving how organizations handle the needs of their employees.

 

Businesses must no longer treat their employees as expendable workhorses. Those that do will suffer the consequences of high employee turnover rates. They will also encounter unproductive and unhealthy employees who will cost them in missed work days due to an increase in health issues.

 

A focus on employee well-being is another one of the key elements of employee engagement for good reason. A happier and healthier employee is a more engaged one and that leads to better levels of employee retention.

 

That is why many organizations are now using corporate wellness platforms. These platforms allow employees to engage in activity challenges by themselves or as a team.

 

They can also engage and take part in health and wellness categories such as:

 

• Nutritious Recipes
• Fitness Videos
• Wellness Education
• Behavior Challenges
• Group Wellness Events

 

Building healthier habits leads to more engaged employees in the workplace and creates accountability. The ability to customize challenges and hold team wellness events helps bond co-workers together. It also shows employees that you’re a company that cares.

 

4. Employee Recognition

Employee recognition is one of the elements of employee engagement that often goes unacknowledged the most. Employees work hard and must juggle a lot to maintain an appropriate work-life balance.

 

There are many companies and organizations that believe an employee’s paycheck alone is acknowledgment enough for their work. But employee recognition doesn’t need to be an extravagant song and dance number or an all-expenses-paid European vacation.

 

In fact, 85% of workers surveyed claimed that a simple “thank you” was enough. This could entail the act of sending out a message of thanks or congratulations to a team after completing a large project. Employee recognition could also be wishing an employee a happy birthday or remembering their milestone work anniversary.

 

The most important form of employee recognition comes from manager feedback. Unfortunately, many organizations either do not engage in employee recognition frequently enough or don’t have an employee recognition system at all.

 

By managing this oversight with proper employee recognition, you’ll make employees feel more valued and strengthen employee retention.

 

5. Employee Rewards

Of course, that’s not to say that you can still reward your employees in other ways from time to time. A tangible reward system gives employees a set goal or objective to strive for. It is also one of the top elements of employee engagement.

 

When there is a promise of earning potential rewards, employees will become more engaged in their job. This can take the form of a gift card or other special prize. It could be for recognizing employee collaborations and achievements on a special project or as a part of a company-wide health and wellness challenge.

 

For example, if your organization holds regular fitness events, you can incorporate a rewards program for extra motivation. For each fitness challenge an individual or team completes, points are awarded and logged into a system that tracks their progress. The top-scoring participants can then redeem those points for a reward of their choice or for a custom one that the organization sets up ahead of time.

 

A built-in employee rewards platform makes it easy to track and acknowledge employee performance. It builds up a more positive work environment and establishes a better work culture overall.

 

Employee rewards go hand-in-hand with other forms of employee recognition. With both elements working in tandem, you can bolster employee retention and engagement.

 

6. Trust in the Workplace

Trust goes a long way toward improving employee retention as well. Along with all of the other elements of employee engagement, trust is essential for building up a workplace culture based on mutual respect and cooperation.

 

Employees need to feel safe in their workplace environment. The changing workplace culture is one that is centered around diversity and inclusivity. Employees who don’t feel like they are in an organization they can trust and feel comfortable working in will easily become disengaged.

 

They also need to feel that they have consistent management support, should any issues arise. Employees should be able to freely voice their opinions and share feedback without the fear of losing their job as a consequence.

 

Communication and trust are joint elements of employee engagement. It’s a two-way channel of manager feedback and employee feedback that makes a successful company thrive. Management and their employees are a team that works together in a symbiotic relationship.

Employees who have trust in their workplace will be more engaged and productive. They will also show more company loyalty. This bodes well not only for your employees themselves but also for your organization as a whole.

 

How Can We Improve Employee Engagement?

You’ve seen newspaper articles talking about how much time employees waste on Facebook at work. Yet employers shouldn’t focus too heavily on incidences of time clock theft. Employees waste time elsewhere too, such as approximately six business weeks each year on pointless busy work.

 

Knowing what drives employee engagement is crucial to business success. There are various strategies that businesses can implement that will help with this, making it easier to achieve your goals. They can do this by improving employee wellness, which relates directly to how people will feel at work.

 

• Supply the Right Tools

This is often overlooked, but it’s one of the biggest drivers of employee engagement. You need to make sure all employees have access to whatever tools they need for them to succeed in their roles. You can do this by making sure your company has all the necessary infrastructure in place.

 

This involves everything that your employees regularly use to complete their work. Large organizations typically have more barriers that prevent employees from doing what they need to. The longer employees have to try to work without the right tools, the more it will negatively impact their engagement.

 

A common example of this is in companies that use various tools which require different passwords. Having to remember multiple passwords just to get a day of work done isn’t ideal and will frustrate your employees.

 

You need to think about this more as your business grows. Things will naturally become more complex, so you want to make sure you’re making things as simple as possible for your employees.

 

• Give Individual Attention

It’s important to remember that all of your employees are different. As such, they might have different expectations from employers, and you’ll need to consider everyone as an individual to ensure they’re happy at work.

 

Some companies test employees to analyze their specific tendencies. The results can offer insights into different employees so that you can focus on each individual better.

 

You might find, for example, that some individuals don’t like speaking in front of large groups, or some prefer to work in teams. You can then make decisions to ensure everyone is working in a way that’s preferable to them.

 

This testing can also help with new hires. You can determine the type of individual you need for a specific role and test applicants to find someone that fits well.

 

Managers can look at the results of those on their team to help improve how they communicate with them, leading to better teamwork and motivation. You may not want to go through the process of such testing, in which case you can simply ask your employees about these things. If there’s anything particular that they want (or don’t want), they’ll be able to tell you so you can take action.

 

• Provide Training and Coaching

One thing that kills people’s motivation at work is when they feel like they’re going nowhere. If you can create an environment that encourages growth and development, people will be a lot more enthusiastic.

 

When people can improve their skills and learn new ones while working, they’ll feel a sense of investment in their future. You can offer this by providing various training programs and courses.

 

This generally isn’t too expensive, and employees with greater skill sets will be able to offer more to the company. You can see this as an investment in your employees as well as your business.

It’s ideal to offer training in skills that will help people do more for your company. Keep things relevant while still giving them something new.

 

When your employees can be more productive at work, it will make sense to increase their salaries. Your business will benefit from their new skills, and they’ll be happier with a larger paycheck.

 

• Listen to Employees

A flaw that’s too common in many companies is that people in positions of authority often think they always know best, which may not be the case. A good leader should know when to listen to those they lead. Pay attention to what your employees are saying and you may be able to make a range of improvements.

 

A common practice is to get your employees to do annual surveys. They can give opinions on various areas of your business so you can see how they feel. Make these anonymous so that they’ll be honest.

 

People often feel like there are issues with things like the organization of a company, the resources they have available, or how they can work. Remote work, for example, has become a lot more common in recent years, and if you were to ask your employees, many would say that they’d like to have the option to work remotely.

 

You may find that employees are asking for things that might not be viable. If this is the case, you can still work to make other improvements. Giving your employees the chance to give their input will also make them feel more valued.

 

• Get Social

Another useful way to make employees feel more engaged in their work is to create an environment that encourages connections between colleagues. Healthy relationships between individuals and teams will make people feel closer to those they work with.

 

This starts with encouraging teamwork in day-to-day tasks, but you can also organize different types of events to build relationships that extend beyond work. Company parties are one of the best opportunities to do this. You can organize fun games and team building activities that get people interacting with one another.

 

Doing this outside of the work environment can make a huge difference. People will feel more relaxed and they’ll be able to cut loose a bit. Taking away the formality of the workplace will result in more authentic relationships and could help build bonds that otherwise might never exist.

 

As an employer, you still need to make sure things are handled responsibly. Knowing how to balance life and work will help with this, allowing everyone to have a good time while still maintaining professional relationships without issue.

 

Many companies now have teams in a range of locations, as well as remote employees. Social activities can be more complicated in such businesses. You can use a platform like Woliba to connect employees from all over the world.

 

• Serve Others

Not all companies make use of service projects, but they can be very beneficial. These can help build stronger relationships between employees in a similar way to social events while also giving something back to the local community.

 

People like to feel that they’re making a difference, and this gives them an opportunity to do that. It can help give people’s lives — and their work — more meaning. It will also make them more proud to work for your company as you’ve shown that you care about the community around you.

 

There are plenty of things you could organize for this. Some common examples include helping to build homes, donating to orphanages, or raising money for charities.

 

• Financial Incentives

Let’s not beat around the bush. Approximately 41% of all employees feel that they are underpaid. Only 37% believe their salary can keep up with the pace of inflation.

 

Now, this isn’t to say that you need to increase your pay scales. It is, though, a reminder that the primary influencing factor for people to come to work is money. You can see this in the fact that approximately half of Americans wouldn’t recommend their job to somebody else.

 

One of the primary motivating factors for the average employee is financial compensation. If they can’t get this through their salary, then there’s still another solution: performance incentives.

 

How to Build Incentive Programs

Many companies have seen great success by implementing a rewards program. Simply put, employees get rewards when they reach certain performance thresholds. This might mean exceeding a requisite number of overtime hours or onboarding the most new clients.

 

These reward programs excel when they work as a competition among employees. You can easily boost employee morale by gamifying success indicators.

 

The incentives don’t necessarily need to be large, either. Often the promise of a simple $25 gift card is enough to drive competition. People will do their best if they know there’s a sweet reward for their efforts–such as a free dinner at a local restaurant.

 

Benefits of Rewards Programs

People love the satisfaction of earning something for themselves. For this reason, so many people choose a passion career that pays less over one with better financial security. For most, employee satisfaction is superior to a high salary.

 

At the end of the day, a rewards program is a cost-effective solution to drive employee productivity. Corporate engagement strategies will always be successful when money is on the line. A rewards program can provide additional impetus for employees struggling to keep up morale in the workplace.

 

Plus, you get higher employee retention. Turnover is the bugbear of HR departments the world over. You make it easier for an employee to choose to stay when they have something to look forward to–such as rewards.

 

• Employee Recognition

Money isn’t the only motivator to improve employee satisfaction. People want to feel good about their efforts as much as receive compensation for them. We crave the approbation of our peers, even in an office setting.

 

That’s why employee recognition takes a close second after reward programs. It’s one of the main things people will recommend to small businesses for employee engagement.

 

Unfortunately, it’s all too common to find an office where employees work thankless jobs. At most, they get a weekly email commending them for their work–in a vague, non-specific way. It’s hard to do your best job–or care–if you get the feeling that nobody notices.

 

Getting to shake the boss’s hand for a job well done sure means a lot. But what else can businesses do to recognize their employees?

 

Implementing an Employee Recognition Program

One of the most straightforward ways to give employees a proper pat on the back is through a recognition platform. This platform leverages a type of employee recognition that is just as valuable: co-worker recognition.

 

Of course, people can always congratulate each other when slogging side by side in the trenches. But a platform centralizes recognition into a single location.

 

It makes it easy to recognize someone when you didn’t get the chance previously. When things get busy at work, you don’t risk losing the opportunity to honor a hard worker.

 

Most importantly, it puts the excelling employee front and center. They don’t just get recognition from one person, but rather from the whole team. Others can chime in and congratulate them for their hard work, too.

 

• Workplace Culture

Workplace culture is one of the first selling points that many companies point to in job ads. It’s so important that it often comes before salary or benefits packages. As we mentioned in the previous section, people prioritize satisfaction over making big money.

 

It’s difficult to provide a formula for creating an organic workplace culture. Oftentimes, it arises on its own. However, there are ways to promote it with corporate strategies.

 

Employee Engagement Platform

One of the best ways to jumpstart company culture is with the help of an engagement platform. This provides a bird’s eye view of how effective your employee engagement strategies are.

 

An engagement platform leverages data to gain insights into the employee experience. It does this through service and engagement diagnosis tools. With that data in mind, you can then build more successful strategies.

 

Incentivize Participation

We mentioned how important it is to incentivize employees to do what they do best. Rewards programs tend to focus on employee performance. Thankfully, your employee engagement platform can reward people for giving feedback through surveys.

 

Get Easy Survey Templates

Not sure what to ask employees? Not a problem. Your employee recognition platform comes with survey templates that are very easy to customize.

 

You won’t even have to score the surveys. AI will do it for you and provide the results–with analytics to glean important trends and averages.

 

• Employee Wellness

A person’s health is closely tied to their ability to maximize productivity. It just makes sense that someone who is fatigued, under the weather, or overworked can’t give it their all.

 

Unfortunately, humans are far more sedentary than our ancestors. We sit for long hours in uncomfortable chairs, behind desks that hurt our wrists. Then we climb into a car and drive home, rather than walk.

 

Most people solve this problem with a gym subscription or an evening run. However, it’s hard to stay motivated on your own. That’s where a person’s job comes in: their employer can promote a health-centric workplace.

 

People spend eight hours per day in your office. They must get encouragement here to have good health habits, just as much as anywhere else.

 

Implementing a Corporate Wellness Program

An employee wellness platform is the best way to start any sort of health program. It’s a combination of several things: physical challenges, team competitions, and health resources.

 

Are people looking a bit stressed out? An employee wellness platform allows you to call an emergency meditation session. This gives everyone a chance to take a deep breath, step back, and disengage for a brief spell.

 

These are team-focused activities, so they serve as excellent bonding tools as well. However, you can scale them up to an entire company. Even if your team works across the globe, you have the option to unify them in their wellness goals.

 

Access to Wellness Resources

Education is one of the best ways to fight poor health. Many people simply do not realize the things that they are doing which negatively affect their health. These can be small things, such as slouching at their desks or buying fast food over home-cooked meals.

 

Education and awareness can provoke a big change in the mindset of people at the office. Providing free resources to them means they have more opportunities to work on their health. This is an excellent option for people who want to focus on health challenges alone, rather than as a team.

 

• Building an Office that Feels Like Home

Last but not least, the office where people work needs to drive engagement and productivity. The programs in the office culture are good, but they don’t mean much if the workplace itself is lackluster.

 

Many employees long for ergonomic chairs, tables, and decent work computers or work tools. They want to be able to labor in peace with divider cubicles. Contrary to popular belief, the open office model is terrible for productivity.

 

Include amenities that your employees might want. A comfy break room is a big plus. Some break rooms go above and beyond by adding sleeping pods, great coffee, or other perks for employees only.

 

If you have a sizable work campus, then make this location the sort of place that people look forward to visiting. In short, make your office a home–and a welcoming one at that.

 

• Offer a Flexible Work Schedule

35% of people who have jobs allowing them to work from home take advantage of the offered work-from-home schedule. The pandemic made remote work a possibility because although people needed to quarantine, it didn’t mean that their jobs didn’t need to be fulfilled.

 

Allowing employees to take advantage of a flexible work schedule is another way to show that you care about them. It allows employees to work in a comfortable setting because they are working from home. It also provides more freedom for them to step away from their desks when they need to take a break and refocus on the tasks they need to complete.

 

This is a question you can ask in your survey to employees. It will help you to gauge how many work-from-home days are reasonable for employees. You might even want to rethink some of the jobs that are currently being done in the office.

 

For example, your IT department could be jobs that are performed from home. If they are tasked with monitoring the security of your company, this isn’t always something that needs to be done in-house.

 

Not only does remote work benefit your employees, but it also benefits your company. This is because you’re not paying for the costs to operate the building your company is housed in when people are working from home at different points in the week.

 

• Schedule Non-Work Activities

When the only time employees see their employer or other coworkers is at work, it can lower their need to engage with the company. But, you can turn this around by scheduling some activities outside of work that are all about team building and relaxation.

 

There are tons of ways to do this, including hosting fitness events. When you’re using Woliba, you can customize the challenge that you deploy for employees to participate in.

 

The event you host could be centered around a wellness challenge where employees use the Woliba application to document their progress with the challenge.

 

Make things fun and set a deadline for employees to complete the challenge. When the challenge is over, you can announce the first, second, and third-place winners and provide them with a prize of some sort. The prize could be an additional day off the following week or a gift card they can use for something they choose.

 

You can also set the rules of the challenge. For example, can employees form groups to achieve the goal of the challenge? Or is it mandatory that they participate individually?

 

What do you want them to achieve, a certain number of steps or miles for that specific week? This will help to take some of the stress of the work week off the shoulders of the employees and bring a fun aspect to working with your company.

 

It will not only get employees motivated to take their health seriously, but they are motivated to compete for the prize that will be awarded at the end of the competition.

 

• Lead by Example

If you want employees to remain engaged in your company, you have to lead by example. This not only means you but also all other upper-level executives who work within the company.

 

Everyone who works within upper management has to remain engaged in the daily operations of the company if you want to ensure that employees don’t check as well. If employees think that upper-level management doesn’t care, they will begin to wonder why they should put effort into doing their jobs.

 

When employees are looking for motivation, they’re going to turn to you and others first. The best way to set an example for your employees is to model healthy work ethics each day.

 

There are several ways to adopt a better work ethic, with the first being to understand company goals. When you understand the goals of the company, you can take the steps to achieve these goals.

 

Goals need to be measurable and realistic so you can create actionable steps to achieve them. Mentoring within the company is also essential to improving work ethic. Not only should there be a mentor program for employees, but there should also be one for those who work in managerial positions.

 

It’s also important to create a healthy work environment with a strong workplace culture. Ensure the environment is clean each day and prepared for employees to come in and get their work done.

 

Lastly, to ensure you’re setting the right example, exhibit professional mannerisms at all times. This means making and acting ethically and communicating efficiently with everyone within the company.

 

Role of Technology in Improving Employee Engagement

Here’s a statistic that every business leader needs to know. A recent Gallup survey shows that highly engaged employees tend to produce 21% better than employees who don’t feel engaged.

 

Anyone running a business should be laser-focused on boosting employee engagement. That said, getting employee engagement is easier said than done.

 

You can promote employee engagement through work events. It’s also helpful to explain your company values. Some companies try to boost engagement by promoting a culture of transparency. These approaches take a lot of effort.

 

Fortunately, there are employee engagement software tools that can help. An employee engagement platform can help reduce your turnover rates. It can boost productivity, and create a better culture at your workplace.

 

Some businesses might be able to get by without software. Boosting employee engagement does take a lot of time and energy. If your business doesn’t have the resources, the software can fill in the gaps.

 

In the article below, you’ll find a list of reasons why your business needs to start using an employee engagement solution. The information in this post will help you figure out how a platform can help your company’s bottom line by creating an engaged workforce. Continue reading to learn more about employee engagement.

 

• An Engagement Platform Can Help Boost Communication

One of the core responsibilities of any business leader is to communicate with their team. Your team has to know what they’re responsible for, how they’re performing, and how the company is performing. In much the same way leaders must communicate, employees must also communicate.

 

The more engaged an employee is, the easier it will be for them to communicate with their coworkers. An engaged employee is someone who knows their teammates well.

They feel comfortable asking for help or advice. Employee engagement platforms help communication between team members.

 

They do this through feedback feeds, news alerts, and other communication hub features. This type of communication hub is especially important for companies that have remote or hybrid workforces. It can be hard to get employees engaged if they don’t see each other in the office every day.

 

An employee engagement software solution can help replace in-person communication. You might have concerns about how well your team is communicating.

 

You can consider investing in employee engagement software. This will ensure communication flows throughout your organization.

 

• Engagement Software Can Help Build a Culture of Feedback

It’s not easy to build a workplace culture in which employees are comfortable giving and receiving candid feedback. Employees have to feel like they won’t face punishment for delivering candid feedback to their managers. At the same time, managers have to feel comfortable giving feedback that an employee may not receive well.

 

Both employees and managers also need a platform or space to provide feedback. That could be a scheduled meeting in a private room.

 

It could be a weekly video call between a remote employee and their manager. In some cases, the feedback platform could be employee engagement software.

 

Employee engagement platforms have built-in tools to promote and give feedback. This feedback can come in the form of public shoutouts from one employee to another.

 

It could come in the form of private, one on one feedback notes between a manager and their direct report. You can store some feedback as notes for later use in an annual review.

 

Giving employees continuous feedback also helps them improve more quickly. A whopping 95% of employees want feedback more often than once per year, and yet annual reviews are still very common.

 

Employee engagement software allows you to give feedback at the moment and store it somewhere where employees can see it and refer back to it. The easier it is for employees to provide feedback to each other, the more quickly you’ll build a strong culture of feedback in your organization.

 

• Software Helps With Professional Development

Every employee at your company likely has some goals for their professional development. Take time to encourage employees to chase professional development. They will be happier as a result.

 

Plus, employees are more productive after they go through professional development training. It is a far better strategy than letting employees get stagnant.

 

Employee engagement tools can be professional development platforms. You can track employee goals for training, certifications, and more. Employees will be able to log in to the platform and track their progress over time.

 

The organization can provide employees with professional development courses through the platform. Your organization’s employees will be happier working for a company that invests in employee development.

 

• Engagement Platforms Build Community

Whether you have an in-person work environment or a remote work environment, it’s important to build community within your company. In-person offices can create community through happy hours, group lunches and office events.

 

Remote offices may not be able to create community quite so easily. That’s why remote workforces need to invest in employee engagement software.

 

This software can provide a place for employees to engage with each other. Consider having one centralized platform for employee engagement. It will help your remote company keep employees connected at all times.

 

• Software Keeps Leadership Informed

Employee engagement software can help your organization boost engagement. It can also help your company track employee engagement metrics.

 

Companies can stay abreast of employee engagement by leveraging the power of an employee engagement tool. These tools allow companies to run employee engagement surveys.

 

The surveys provide insights into company-wide engagement. You can run surveys to gauge how happy employees are, how motivated they are, and how much purpose they feel at their job.

 

Running these types of surveys can help companies identify issues before they become bigger problems. For example, you may find that many of your employees don’t feel a strong connection to your organizational values.

 

In that case, you may decide to do more training on how to live out the company values. You might also decide to get employee input on how to adjust the values.

 

If your company has a turnover problem, you can use engagement surveys to identify the root cause of the issue. An engagement survey might reveal that many of your employees don’t feel they’re compensated fairly. In that case, you may have to think about raising salaries to be more competitive.

 

Consider using engagement platforms to run surveys if you aren’t already. These surveys could be the difference between you keeping your best employees and losing them.

 

• Engagement Boosts Productivity

Employees that feel engaged are more likely to work harder and care more about their work. If employees don’t feel engaged, they won’t feel bad if they let another co-worker down on a project.

 

They might feel apathetic about work and pay less attention to details. An unengaged employee can be a serious detriment to your company. Some tools can help you re-engage that employee.

 

Employee engagement software connects employees and helps them build a sense of belonging. These platforms provide employees with frequent feedback that helps them improve their work.

 

The platforms can also help employees track professional development goals. When you add all these things together, you get a platform that helps your entire company be more productive.

 

While employee engagement software does have a cost, that cost can be offset. The sooner you start using employee engagement software, the sooner you’ll be able to boost productivity.

 

This extra productivity can more than make up for the cost of the engagement software. Plus, employee engagement software can help you keep more employees instead of losing them to other companies.

 

It costs a lot of time and money to replace an employee that leaves. Plus you lose productivity while your organization waits to fill the role.

 

Employee engagement software gets rid of this loss of time and money. That’s another way in which engagement software helps pay for itself.

 

Creating Effective Employee Engagement Strategies

Having a workforce of engaged, productive, happy employees is every business owner’s dream. But, it’s not always the reality.

Are you worried about staff turnover and keeping an engaged workforce in your business?

With only 32% of US employees saying they are engaged at work, you are not alone. 

Many employers don’t understand employee engagement and as a result, their workforce may not be performing at their best.

So how do you keep your staff motivated and invested in their work?

The first steps are learning about the importance of engaged employees. Then, you can work on developing your own effective employee engagement strategies. 

Read on to find out more.

 

• Start the Conversation

One of the first things you should do as an employer who has conducted an employee engagement survey is to demonstrate that you are listening.

If your employees have taken the time to give you their feedback if you do nothing with that information it will actually lead to disengagement. 

All employees want to feel like they are being listened to, and that some action will be taken as a result. It will increase engagement if your staff see that their opinions will contribute to change. 

So once you have gathered the data from your feedback exercises, you can share the results and start the conversation about how things can be improved. You may consider using specialist software to manage the data. 

This is the first step in involving your team in the employee engagement program. 

 

• Share Good Practice

Staff feedback may vary from team to team. 

Sharing good practice across teams is a really helpful way to start to improve employee engagement. 

It will feel great for those individuals and teams whose practices are being shared. For the rest of the team, it will feel like a collaborative exercise in improving standards, rather than instructions from the top down.

Making sure you acknowledge good practice in your organization will encourage it to carry on in the future, and for others to emulate it. 

 

• Create an Employee-Centered Culture

You can not expect loyalty, passion and drive from your staff if that feels like a one-way street. So let them know that the values of the business are that the employees are the priority. 

Creating an employee-centered workplace culture is also about the employees feeling that they are listened to and that their input matters. 

Involving employees in decisions whenever you can help them to feel closer to the beating heart of the organization. If employees feel that they are on the periphery of the business, they will feel disengaged.

This applies to employees at all levels of the organization from executives to entry level.

There is a story about JFK. When he was taken on a tour of the NASA headquarters, he met a janitor mopping the floor. He inquired about his role at NASA. The janitor replied, “I’m helping put a man on the moon.”

Now that’s an employee-centered culture!

 

• Be Flexible

When you’re creating strategies for human resources such as employee engagement programs, it is easy to start referring to your employees as one homogenous group. 

But never forget they are all individuals, with different strengths, weaknesses, and needs. 

They also have different learning styles and different approaches to working. Rather than trying to make them all fit into standard working practices, allow some flexibility for their diversity. 

If you take the time to acknowledge the differences in your employees and let them find the best working practices that suit them, they will feel valued and no doubt more productive. 

 

• Give Smart Rewards

Hey, good job!

Er, thanks, but what for?

It’s easy to give praise, and most of us enjoy giving praise. But your praise will sound more sincere if you demonstrate that you have understood what they’ve done and how it will benefit the business.

Praise is as much more about showing your employees you’ve noticed what they’ve done and acknowledged it, as the pat on the back. Why bother going that extra mile if nobody notices?

This is not to say that you shouldn’t give them a well-earned reward. Just explain why. 

Any rewards that you do give to your staff should be fair and proportionate to what they have achieved. 

Rewards don’t always have to be financial. There are employee recognition schemes that you could use such as an Employee of the Month Award.  

 

• Invest In Your Employees

Spending resources on your staff should not just be reward based. 

Investing in their training and personal development is a vital part of employee engagement and will benefit them and the business. 

Most employees want to improve their performance and advance their careers. Giving them the tools to help them do that will result in them feeling both valued and that the business wants to retain them.

There are so many opportunities you can open up to your employees, including in-house training, sponsored educational courses, and conferences. 

As an employer, you can integrate your training interfaces using software, which allows your employees to track their own progress. 

You can also start a program of company-wide benefits. This can involve fun things, like company activity challenges and wellness events that will feel like a treat for your employees. You can also use things like charity fundraisers to get staff all pulling together for a really positive cause. 

 

Conclusion

Employee engagement is crucial for fostering a motivated, productive, and satisfied workforce. Implementing effective strategies, such as clear communication, recognition, and growth opportunities, is key to achieving this.

Technology plays a pivotal role by streamlining engagement efforts through digital platforms, feedback tools, and analytics.

Woliba is your partner in the journey of employee engagement. Our innovative solutions empower companies to connect, motivate, and retain their employees. From personalized feedback mechanisms to virtual team-building activities, we’ve got you covered.

Contact us today to discover how Woliba can help transform your workplace and enhance employee engagement. Together, let’s create a thriving, engaged workforce!