Index
Last updated December 23, 2020
We know that employee engagement is more than just adding a ping pong table to your office space. Let’s say you’ve done the employee engagement survey and the results weren’t quite what you expected. Where do you start? What strategies will actually make your employees passionate and excited to work for your organisation?
In this article, we cover:
Let’s dive in!
A well-strategised organisational culture creates a happy and engaged workforce. But don’t just choose a strategy at random—it’s important to consider your strategies carefully based on your organisational goals.
Your strategic choice will depend on where your organisation currently stands. To assess that, you’ll have to understand the drivers of employee engagement.
There are several drivers of employee engagement, and the strategy you choose will be based on what your employees need the most. These drivers include:
There are more, but these are enough to get you started.
Your next step, after deciding which driver you’re going for, will be to design an action plan. These strategies, if effective, will require a budget, work, and usually a third-party platform or consultant to help.
There’s no one right employee engagement strategy. It’ll vary depending on your company values and culture. It also depends on the current state of employee engagement. If you’re starting from total disengagement, you may need to go the extra mile to build up morale.
While the ultimate strategy may vary, it’s important that you have an action plan to get engaged employees.
It’s about more than just perks and employee recognition. Today’s employees need an emotional connection with their work.
Let’s look at a few employee engagement ideas to get you started:
Pulse surveys are like employee engagement surveys, but more frequent. Rather than every 6 months, these get sent out on a weekly or monthly basis. They’re a continuous psychological and satisfaction check-in with your team members.
As the name suggests, these surveys let you keep your finger on the pulse of your organisation.
Have documented company values and a clear brand narrative. Everyone, from the executives to the janitor, should know what your company holds close to your heart. And your actions should demonstrate it.
Speaking of values, CSR activities are important. Today’s workforce (particularly millennials and Gen Z), want to work with companies with a triple bottom line. Corporate social responsibility alone can reduce employee turnover by 50%. You can take this even further by empowering them to participate through employee volunteering or other initiatives to promote more eco-conscious behaviour.
A study by Deloitte showed that company-powered volunteering has a direct, positive impact on how employees see their company. You can use platforms like Alaya to streamline and manage these initiatives.
When transparency exists at all levels: from employee salaries to business strategies, it helps build trust in the company. This works because it helps employees understand the why of what they’re doing. They understand the company’s vision as well as how it plans to get there.
Workplace transparency has been proven to lower stress, increase employee engagement, and even improve employees’ opinions about their bosses (which reduces turnover).
Transparency is good to get a full view of what’s happening in the business. To trust management and the company. But employees still need to build trust among one another. That’s where team building engagement activities come in.
Team building can be anything from fun icebreaker games to working on a volunteer project as a team. Team building helps build communication, leadership and bonding, among other things. These all contribute to reduced absenteeism and a better employee experience.
Starting an employee engagement strategy may take some trial and error at first. But there are a few things you can do to make sure you’re always heading in the right direction.
Here are some best practices we recommend you bear in mind while designing your employee engagement strategy:
We get asked these questions frequently. If others ask them, we figured you might be wondering the same, too.
What is meant by employee engagement?
Employee engagement is the emotional commitment an employee has to an organisation. It’s their pride and enthusiasm about the company and its mission. If you want to learn more about what employee engagement is, you can check out our article here.
Why is employee engagement important?
Employee engagement is key for getting talented new hires, retention and company culture. Plus, according to a Gallup study, more engagement means more profit.
How do you measure employee engagement?
You can use pulse surveys to regularly measure employee engagement, or send out less frequent employee engagement surveys. We recommend the latter to avoid surprises.
Which strategy speaks out to you most?
