Employee engagement is hard.
Yes, we said it.
As a manager, you constantly need to have your finger on the pulse and on the lookout for new innovative ways of keeping your workforce motivated and engaged.
In this blog post, we take a look at 20 quick tips to boost your employee engagement to ultimately drive sustainable business growth.
1. Onboarding
It’s no surprise that a new employee’s first day sets the tone for the rest of their employment with your company.
When you take the time to think about the enormity of that first impression, it’s important to think about whether or not you could button up that process.
Did you know that that 69% of employees are more likely to stay with a company for three years if they experienced great onboarding?
It will be important to provide access to all tools and tech prior to your new hire’s arrival. In doing this you remove a stressful first day for your new employee.
You can also go ahead and personalise your new employee’s arrival with a warm greeting at the door and a handwritten note at their new desk. Or perhaps even create a schedule for them to follow for the first week.
The first week should be spent showing your new hire the ropes, and introducing them to executives and any team leaders they’ll be working with. A nice way to end week would be with a welcome to the team lunch and a one-on-one session to address any questions they may have.
2. Communication – tailor communication to specific employees
The workplace is diverse. It is therefore imperative to tailor your communication to your different employees.
As a good manager, it will also be important to tailor your tone, message and medium according to generation, gender and seniority.
Tailored and frequent communication has the potential to build great relationships with your employees, which as we know bolsters engagement.
3. Innovation
According to a PwC survey, 23% of CEO’s have said that innovation is a top business priority.
Why?
Innovation is an effective engagement strategy that can be used to drive a competitive advantage. Innovation can also drive high value for customers, but can also produce a happier and more creative workforce.
But how do you create an environment that promotes innovation and by virtue of that, an increase in employee engagement?
1. Physical space. This can either boost or dampen the creative process. So be sure to create spaces that promote creative thinking and sharing. This could be anything from swinging chairs to a whiteboard wall.
2. Time. Set aside idea generation time. This time can be spent sharing ideas or even testing out new ideas in a productive environment.
3. Empower your employees with the right tools. Your employees need the right tools and technology to get their jobs done. As this forms a part of their overall experience with your company, it’s important that you fulfil this experience to the best of your ability.
Your employees can’t be expected to be productive if they’re working with technology that’s outdated or slow.
4. Recognise great work
Recognising great work has never been easier in the tech era. You can harness recognition software to give instant on-the-go recognition that truly promotes engagement, productivity and motivation.
Tools like bountiXP were created to do just that.
5. Communicate business goals/achievements
It’s important for senior managers to communicate your company’s goals and achievements. Your communication strategy should also provide clarity into how your employee’s aid in achieving overall company goals.
This level of communication creates a committed and loyal workforce, one that understands the overall goals of the company and understands what their role is in helping the company achieve them.
This level of communication provides clarity into roles and responsibilities, but also promotes engagement and loyalty amongst your workforce.
6. Encourage learning and development
A study conducted by the Dale Carnegie Training Center indicated that 40% of employees left their job within a year due to poor training.
This is where microlearning comes in. It’s an innovative solution to those outdated traditional learning programmes.
Microlearning offers bite-sized pieces of information that are highly practical and often, delivered in rich media formats such as video, apps and animation.
This form of learning can be implemented quickly and at a low cost to your business.
7. Continuous feedback
Your employees need fast frequent feedback. The annual performance review is quickly becoming obsolete.
The importance today is on creating a culture of feedback that aids learning, growth and productivity.
8. Pulse surveys
The need for continuous and frequent feedback has resulted in the use of pulse surveys. These are short questionnaires that can be sent out daily or weekly and will usually only consist of one or two questions making it easier for your employees to complete. Avoiding that dreaded survey fatigue, which so many employees feel. The frequency in which data comes in, allows managers to establish benchmarks, track engagement trends and quickly react to what’s working and what isn’t.
9. Say “thank you”
Global studies revealed that 79% of people who quit their jobs cite lack of appreciation as their reason for leaving! Your employees will perform better when they know there’s a sense of meaning behind their efforts. A simple, but genuine heart-felt “thank you” can go a long way in motivating and boosting productivity.
In need of some ways to say thank you? We wrote 32 different ways to show your employees just how much you appreciate them here.
10. Encourage collaboration
A majority of workplaces today promote teamwork and collaboration. It’s no wonder as it promotes productivity and is also a great catalyst for innovation.
Did you know that 75% of employees rate teamwork and collaboration as “very important”?
You can encourage increased collaboration through your internal tools like Slack, provide time for collaborative input and you can also reward teams for their collaborative efforts on particular projects.
11. Mentoring
Quora is a great example: all of their new hires are paired up with a personal mentor to help aid learning and company integration. They even acknowledge that it costs mentors around 25% loss in personal output during that first week!
Instead of working in isolation, with a mentor your employees will start to feel like part of the company and more readily and easily find their purpose and place as it relates to achieving your company’s strategic goals.
A mentoring programme will help keep your employees loyal, engaged and promote on the job learning and expertise.
12. Celebrate your staff
It’s so easy to get caught up in the daily business hustle, but taking the time to celebrate your employee’s milestones and achievements are important.
Whether it be a birthday or a work anniversary be sure to make some time to make your employees feel special and valued on that day.
13. Reward your staff
Rewards form a key part of a company’s recognition strategy.
Remember, when you’re deciding on what employee rewards to give, bear in mind who you are rewarding.
For example, rewards related to social and environmental causes may speak volumes to a millennial employee, but the same is not true for a baby boomer who is more akin to receiving gift cards or a luxury travel reward.
14. Work-life balance
The Corporate Executive Board which represents 80% of the Fortune 500 companies, found that employees who believe that they have good work-life balance work 21% harder than those who don’t.
You’ll need to consider what this work/life balance looks like cross-generationally to ensure your workforce is offered the time to do and be a part of the things that they value most.
A millennial employee may want time to hit the gym or grab an impromptu coffee with a friend, a baby boomer, on the other hand, may want to head out to their grandchild’s first school play.
Take time to understand what balance your employees need in order to boost productivity, engagement and loyalty.
15. Gamification
The 2018 gamification at work survey indicated that 87% of employees agree that gamification makes them more productive.
If that’s true, introducing game-like elements like; leaderboards, levels and rewards to your work environment may be just what you need to promote engagement and an element of fun into your employees day.
16. Strengths assessment
Manager’s need to have frequent conversations to truly understand where your employee’s strengths lie.
According to Gallup, a “strengths-based approach has been proven to help teams experience up to 72% lower turnover.”
Arash Ferdowski founder of DropBox is a great example of truly understanding what your employees are good at in order to drive innovation and “out-of-the-box” thinking.
17. Flexibility
Workplace flexibility could mean anything from working remotely from a beach in Indonesia to your home office to avoid a lengthy commute.
Is your company responding to the needs of this diverse workforce?
18. Create company traditions
Creating company traditions are unique to your company and its culture.
You could bring in a popcorn machine every Friday where your employees get to enjoy a healthy snack and have a laugh or two before tackling the rest of the day with energy and motivation.
It’s also a fun way to boost office morale and camaraderie.
19. Have fun
Ultimately your employees should be having fun whilst they’re working hard to drive your business to new heights.
In case, you’re wondering, fun can be measured; so if you’re unsure why don’t you spend some time finding out.
You cannot expect to drive a sustainable competitive advantage without a workforce that’s truly engaged. So what are you waiting for?
In the meantime why not sign up for a FREE 14-day trial to our SaaS-based employee recognition platform?