As the new year begins everyone seems to be looking for ways to refocus and start fresh after a rough year in the world of 2020. One great area to place that focus is on your employees! Employee engagement is a critical part of any successful business. According to SHRM engaged employees are more optimistic, team-oriented, go above and beyond, solution-oriented, selfless, show a passion for learning and pass on credit while accepting blame. Whereas disengaged employees show exact opposite behaviors in the workplace.
Here are 8 ways to help boost employee engagement in your workplace:
1. Take a Pulse
It is recommended that you survey your employees to see how engaged or disengaged they may be. This may be the best place to start to know where to place goals. This could look like a variety of things; a written survey that goes out quarterly or a “roundtable” type discussion. Regardless it is important to get employee feedback regularly. - Emplify
2. Foster/Encourage Professional Relationships
Having friendships at work is shown to boost engagement by 7x. With numbers like that why wouldn’t you want to encourage this? Host a variety of events to get employees familiar and comfortable with each other to help foster this. - CNBC
3. Celebrate Together
Whether this be a milestone at the company or personal milestones like a wedding shower or birthday. When people feel recognized and appreciated, they are more likely to want to work harder.
4. Communication, Communication, Communication
Many young workers feel more engaged when their managers show that they care. The easiest way to do that would be to have more conversations and check ins. Not just having a once-a-year performance review but to have a coaching like approach throughout the year. - SHRM
5. Rest
Employees cannot maintain a high level of productivity without the occasional rest period. Giving paid time off as a benefit is great but encouraging people to take PTO is even better. Let employees know that their time in the office is valued as much as their time to rest and refresh.
6. Goal Setting and Supporting
It is important to know where your employees see themselves going within the company. The best way to do this is to talk about goals together and support as you can along the way.
7. Improving Company Culture
This may seem like a challenging aspect to improve with many people working remote still (and no real end in sight) and there are many ways to go about this. Emplify said it best,
“The truth is that culture, compensation, and good leadership work in tandem to deliver the best possible employee experience. It’s not an easy solution, but the logic is simple. Consider this: foosball and free lunch won’t fix low pay any more than great pay will fix a dull job or an abusive manager. At the end of the day, we’re all alone with the work we do in the place where we do it — be it in a cubicle, on a couch, or at a client site — with the work family we (generally) don’t get to choose.
Today, the way to compete in the talent wars is to shift your focus from compensation (fixed) to culture (variable) and compassionate leadership (variable). The latter two take considerably more work, but in the long term, they cost less and generate far greater talent ROI.”
8. Fairness
Employees can see fairness, or lack thereof, in the workplace. A great way to boost engagement is to make sure it is consistent across the board. Whether it be rewards or treatment in general. If employees feel like things are fair, they are more likely to be engaged.
Looking for ideas on how to celebrate milestones? Check out some of our swag options here that make great gifts. You can combine several products to be kitted, add multiple items to an online store for employees to go on and choose from, or order a bulk amount to keep around the office and give out as each milestone approaches.
Let's work together to engage your team!
