Employee Engagement Strategies That Actually Work
Employee engagement and satisfaction is a leading factor in any company’s day to day success. A recent study has shown that being an organisation with a highly engaged workforce is 21% more profitable than those without. With statistics like that it’s no wonder that 70% of employers have improved their physical environments to encourage healthy behaviours with their team members (Forbes). This article aims to discuss the most effective employee engagement strategies.
However, 70% of workers are still not engaged in the companies they work for. So how do you implement effective employee engagement strategies that will help lead you to success and increase loyalty and how do you go about measuring employee engagement? In this article, we have outlined the 5 most successful employee training and engagement strategies that will help boost profitability and employee retention.
Table of Contents
What does Employee Engagement mean?
Employee engagement is defined as the emotional commitment the employee has to the company and its goals. What this means is that your employees don’t just simply come to work for a paycheck. They genuinely care, are passionate, determined to succeed within the business and are looking for opportunities in developing talent and making their own contributions.
Engaging employees is vital for any organisational growth as it leads to higher productivity levels, higher customer satisfaction and increased product sales.
So how do you keep staff motivated at work whilst sticking to a budget and make a significant change? How do you ensure that you are providing a healthy work environment where your employees feel safe, happy and secure in their jobs? Check out our employee engagement strategies.
What are Employee Engagement Strategies and Best Practices?
Employee engagement best practices include leadership development, culture, performance and online training. Hopefully, you won’t be surprised to learn that best practices do not include money.
Yes, a good remuneration package will go a long way to an extent, however, it is not everything. Professor William Kahn’s study in the ’90s proved that for employees to be engaged at work, the following 3 psychological conditions had to be met:
- Meaningfulness – does their work make an impact on the company’s overall performance?
- Safety – does the employee feel safe enough at work to be their full self?
- Availability – does the employee feel mentally and physically able, as well as an emotional connection to the role that they fill?
In other words, the employee engagement survey found that strategies should be focussed around making the employee feel like part of a community and employee development, not focus on money.
5 Effective Employee Engagement Strategies to Lead you to Success
So keeping all the above in mind, let’s take a look at the 5 most effective employee engagement strategies to lead you to success.
1. Provide Opportunities for Growth
One of the very best strategies for successful employee engagement is providing opportunities for development and growth. Millennials are now more career-driven than ever with studies showing that 72% of them say they value opportunities for career development, compared to the 52 per cent for boomers and 64% for Gen-X. They want to become part of the leadership team and it’s important you provide an opportunity for this.
Providing real growth opportunities will demonstrate your commitment to your employees, by recruiting and hiring internally you show that ‘climbing the ladder’ is achievable. Allowing your staff to increase their knowledge level and expertise will impact the worker’s self-esteem, make them feel more valued and will avoid disengagement. This in turn will lead to higher employee engagement, satisfaction and happiness.
What is a Career Development Plan?
A career development plan is necessary for showing your employees that you take their personal development and career progression seriously. As a manager, you should be implementing career a development program, with achievable goals and if necessary KPIs built-in for your team. A successful career plan template should include 3 main sections; assessment, documentation and management.
- Assessment – identify where your employee is right now. What are their responsibilities?, what have they already achieved?, what are their current qualifications, experience and strengths? You should also take this time to ask where they want to get to, what their goals are and what they would like to learn – once this has all been done you will start to have a clear picture of how your employee can progress within the company
- Documentation – create an actual document on how the employee is to achieve their goals. Having physical documentation will be easier to track and give the employee a clear time stamp of how long it will really take them to get to where they desire within their career
- Management – as a manager you should be tracking how your employee is getting on. Hold regular one on one meetings to ensure your staff are happy with their progress, if they have any concerns or if their career path has changed at all
This is a fantastic employee engagement idea that will help increase employee job satisfaction.
2. Recognise and Reward Top Performers
Employees are engaged when they feel like they are actively recognised and rewarded for good work. Identifying that an employee’s work is valuable to the company’s overall performance will give them a sense of importance and appreciation and will enhance positive company culture.
There is no one correct way to reward your employees. As senior leaders, you should take the time to find out what their hobbies and passions are so you can tailor this to each team member. Are they a foodie or coffee enthusiast who would appreciate restaurant or coffee vouchers? Do they enjoy day trips and experience days?
Using resources and rewarding employees and recognising top performers is a great employee engagement strategy that is sure to improve employee retention and create fresh initiatives.
Employee Reward Schemes as part of your Engagement Strategy
Lucky for you, there are fantastic employee reward schemes and platforms available that you can sign up to. These often offer a wide range of perks and discounts, meaning your staff can choose from a selection of rewards and pick the one that is most desirable to them. Here are a few reward platform suggestions:
- Kazoo has a robust global catalogue containing over 30,000 products, meaning that they have something for everyone. Other benefits include a live activity feed, peer-to-peer recognition, behavioural bonuses and excellent insights and reporting
- Perkbox brings employee benefits, wellbeing, feedback and employee recognition together. When joining Perkbox your employees can get rewards such as weekly drinks from Caffe Nero, monthly cinema tickets, online fitness and wellness classes and even a Happy Birthday hamper!
- Reward Gateway helps build employee engagement by delivering peer-to-peer and manager-led recognition features to reinforce core values, ways to measure progress through surveys and a range of employee discounts
Implementing a reward scheme platform is one of the top employee engagement strategies to ensure a happy workplace.
3. Give Opportunity for Honest Feedback
Feedback should be a core value that all companies strive towards. Without feedback, your company will never be able to identify key issues. You should always give your staff a regular opportunity to give honest feedback that you can use to drive your business forward. HR professionals will know how important this is and it is vital you add this to your employee engagement strategy.
It’s easy to send out a questionnaire that has been used over and over to employees once a year but unfortunately that won’t be enough information to make informed decisions on how the company’s core values could be improved. You have to ensure that employees feel a) comfortable enough around you to give honest feedback and b) you are asking the right questions.
We have a great blog that lists 70 one-on-one meeting questions all managers should be asking their employees. Research shows that companies who implement regular employee feedback have a turnover rate that is 14.9% lower than for employees who receive no feedback, so this really is a fantastic employee engagement strategy to cause high retention and keep your employees for the long term!
Constructive Feedback for the Manager
As a manager, it is your job to make sure your employees are happy at work and they have all the tools they need to be productive. But knowing what questions to ask can be difficult. Have a one-on-one meeting primarily based on feedback so that this will be your key focus.
A great way of receiving honest feedback is to also let your employees reply to questions anonymously. There are online platforms that will allow you to do this and employees will feel more at ease and comfortable giving negative feedback, which may well be very needed! After all, your employees are at work 8 hours a day, so they know the company flaws and stories better than anyone else.
4. Respect your Employees
Sounds simple, right? Mutual respect in the workplace is a vital engagement strategy. If you respect employees, then they will respect you back.
If trust grows within the office, then so will collaboration. If your colleagues feel like you don’t respect them, then they could end up feeling demotivated, insulted and frustrated and ultimately quit their job. This doesn’t mean you have to always agree with your staff. If a disagreement does occur, then you can still show them an element of respect.
How to Show Respect in the Workplace
If you’ve had a disagreement with someone in the office, or maybe you are trying to better promote teamwork for healthier work culture, then these are some top tips on how to show respect in the workplace:
- Never interrupt a co-worker. If they are trying to explain an issue/problem then sit and listen to their viewpoint
- Be aware of body language and tone of voice. What you say may be perfectly acceptable but if it is being said with aggression or you are sat hunched over with your arms crossed then it may be interpreted as rude
- Offer praise more frequently, as well as encourage praise and recognition among your employees
These tips sound so simple, yet they are extremely effective when putting together an employee engagement strategy plan.
5. Employee Effective Group Learning Strategies
Training sessions are great for ensuring employees are up to date with industry knowledge and learning new techniques, however, be careful not to turn these into manager-led exercises. You should be planning out group learning sessions where your employees can be interactive. Get the whole team involved.
Splitting your colleagues into smaller teams and giving them exercises is a great way to promote teamwork and competition in a healthy way. Be open to fun team-building exercises and days out as it is important to get out of the office with the team every now and then.
You can read more about why you should have meetings outside the office here. Our team-building venue in the Midlands is the perfect location to host your offsite event. We have 20 acres of outdoor space to use for team-building activities as well as 41 adaptable meeting rooms with all the latest technology for presentations.
Team Building Activities for Employee Engagement
There are lots of interactive and fun team-building activities you can do that actually improve employee engagement and you should always be including these into your employee engagement strategies planning. Group activities are vital for employee bonding and you can incorporate your business’ core values into these games. Here are a few of our favourite group activities that we have seen being demonstrated at our venue:
- Assassin – this is a common team-building game. Each player picks another player as a target and tries to assassinate them. It is effective as it can improve the bond between your employees. It is the best game to relax and at the same time bring out each player competitive side
- Minefield – Place items on the ground to represent mines. Gather your staff into teams of 4-5 and nominate a member to become blindfolded in the middle of the minefield. It is the rest of the team’s job to navigate the player through the field without stepping on any mines. This is ideal to build communication and trust within employees.
Effective peer-to-peer learning is a great employee engagement strategy that will leave your staff laughing for days! Go the extra mile and make an action plan and ultra-fun work social to go on once the working day is over.
How Can Employee Engagement Strategies be Tailored for Remote or Hybrid Work Environments?
Good Communication Channels
Create good communication processes and channels, establishing these is vital for remote and hybrid working but will be imperative for employee engagement. Employees need to feel connected and heard whether remote or not but when a company isn’t working together in the office, it’s important to make sure all information is shared in a dedicated communication channel for all to see so that no one feels left out. This will keep employees engaged with company development and goals, as well as for their own personal development within the business.
A good company-wide tool such as Click Up or Asana will help to keep task and project communication in order, whilst a whole company Teams or Zoom channel will be useful for ensuring everyone gets company updates about business or social activities. There are plenty of tools available for different company sizes and budgets.
Virtual Team Building Activities
Be sure to host virtual team-building activities regularly, as well as in-person meet-ups. We all know how important team development and learning is face-to-face, however, financial pressures might not allow for in-person events more than once a quarter, especially for larger and very remote teams. Hosting virtual team-building activities can help the team chat and feel connected more often, helping to build those all-important relationships and communication. Activities might include:
- Virtual coffee breaks – here’s some great icebreakers
- Online trivia or quiz night
- Virtual escape room
- Online paint’n’sip class
- Online cooking class
- Remote team challenges such as fitness or creative contests
Conclusion on Employee Engagement Strategies
Implementing a successful employee engagement strategy is key for company growth and satisfied employees. These 5 strategies are a sure-fire way to lead you to success whilst maintaining employee satisfaction, happiness, health and a successful work-life balance:
- Provide opportunities for growth
- Recognise and reward top performers
- Give opportunity for honest feedback
- Respect your employees
- Employee effective group learning strategies
If you would like to book Yarnfield Park for an offsite meeting or activity day, then get in contact with our friendly team to discuss your requirements.
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