While employee engagement and job satisfaction are connected, it is important to not confuse the two. For example, increasing your employees’ salaries may make your team generally happier. However, engagement runs deeper than this. That is why we are sharing 10 proven employee engagement strategies to help you figure out what makes your employees tick and increase their commitment to your company.
Defining Employee Engagement
In a nutshell, employee engagement refers to how passionate and motivated employees are about their roles. If individuals are highly connected to their organisation, they are more likely to go above and beyond to ensure the success of their team and the company at large. On the opposite end of the scale, employees who are disengaged simply do the bare minimum to ensure they are paid and keep their jobs. Unlike engaged employees, they care less about performing to the best of their abilities and do not have a deep commitment to the company’s values or goals. To learn more about why engagement is so important, read our article on the benefits of employee engagement.
What is an Employee Engagement Strategy Exactly?
It is fair to say that a lot of the advice about boosting retention and engagement focuses on short-term solutions. However, an engagement strategy is designed to map out how companies can keep employees engaged in the long term. Generally, an employee engagement strategy will focus on:
Measuring employee engagement – be it through surveys or indicators like turnover and productivity
Setting goals to improve engagement drivers
Setting a budget to increase engagement
Creating a game plan to improve engagement
Tips to Develop a Strategy That Works
It is nearly impossible to develop a successful engagement strategy without actually measuring engagement first. But even if you have the data on hand, you need to make sure that you take the right approach. To help you get started, here are some tips for developing an employee engagement strategy.
1. Do Not Be Overly Ambitious
Let’s face it, you are not going to transform your business overnight. Reengaging employees takes time and dedication. That is why it is important to set realistic goals. For example, if productivity has been a real problem for your company, it makes sense to set a target to increase it by 15% by the end of the year.
2. Set Clear Expectations
One person or team can not shoulder the responsibility of improving engagement. Instead, responsibilities need to be delegated to key team members from the start, including managers, HR leaders and executives. Equally, it is important to keep track of the progress so you know whether your business is on track.
3. Be Open
Every company is different and while one engagement strategy may have been successful for one business, it may not work for another. Evaluating your strategy and being open to new ideas will help you pivot and find a plan that works for your company.
10 Proven Employee Engagement Strategies
Here are 10 engagement strategies that will help you improve motivation, productivity and overall profitability.
1. Encourage Interactions
A few years ago, most employees spent every day working in the office. Today, flexible working has become the norm, with 44% of UK employees either working from home only or spending part of their week working remotely. With this in mind, it is more important than ever to encourage connections between employees. Simply organising company-wide events can make a world of difference and give your employees a chance to interact with other team members. By building connections with each other, they will feel more involved and committed to the company.
2. Increase Employee Autonomy
If engagement is low, It may be time to let go of the reins and provide your employees with more autonomy. It is important that your employees do not feel micromanaged and have a sense of ownership over their tasks. Plus, this will help to reduce the divide between employees and senior managers, making everyone feel more connected.
3. Establish Core Values
When it comes down to it, your employees want to have a sense of belonging. But without having core values in place, this can be tricky to achieve. It makes sense to put your values and mission at the heart of your culture and day-to-day practices. From day one, these values should be explained to new employees and promoted consistently. This will help your employees develop an emotional connection to your business from the outset.
4. Provide Opportunities for Development
If your employees feel like they have hit a ceiling in their careers, they will become unmotivated. That is why it is a good idea to implement learning and development programmes. Not only will this provide your team with opportunities to develop new skills but also show them that you are invested in their careers and want them to advance to the next level.
5. Promote In-House Talent
Some of the most talented and skilled executives are employees who have worked their way up from entry-level positions to the top of the food chain. Promoting talent within your organisation will boost engagement and encourage employees to go above and beyond. Plus, employees who receive promotions are more likely to stay as opposed to moving to another company to achieve their career goals.
6. Reward Top Performers
Naturally, we all want to be praised for our hard work. Employees who are recognised and appreciated for their efforts will be more engaged. Remember, rewards for performance do not have to always come in the form of prizes. In some cases, simply giving your team a platform to praise their peers can make a world of difference.
7. Be Transparent
When employees are left out of the loop, this can lead to a lack of trust and confidence in management. While it is nearly impossible to share everything with your employees, it is important to be upfront about decisions that directly impact them. Timing is also crucial. Whether you are sharing good or bad news, your employees should hear it from you first instead of an external source.
8. Lead By Example
At the end of the day, the same rules should apply to everyone in the office. Managers and leaders not only need to set standards but also walk the talk. If managers only apply rules to certain team members or when it is convenient for them, this can create a hostile work environment.
9. Make Well-Being a Priority
Unmanageable workloads, poor work-life balance and lack of meaningful work are a recipe for low employee engagement. What’s more, getting to the root of what employees actually want can be challenging. After all, research shows that 39% of employees do not feel comfortable talking to top-level staff about their emotional well-being. But the good news is that you can easily check the health of your workplace with an anonymous employee well-being survey.
10. Provide Extra Employee Benefits
Improving your employee benefits package will ensure that your people feel supported and can overcome challenges such as childcare, money problems and healthcare issues. To learn more, read our guide on why employee benefits are so important.
Let Us Help You Better Support Your People
With years of experience under their belts, our engagement consultants excel at helping businesses develop and implement strategies to boost engagement. Our people experts will work with you to build an employee engagement strategy that addresses the needs of employees at every level. Get in touch with us to discover how we can help you make your employees feel more valued.
FAQ
What are the 5 engagement strategies? Here are five key employee engagement strategies that every business should implement:
Reward and recognise employees for their work
Be open and honest about decisions that affect employees
Prioritise employee well-being
Provide opportunities for employees to develop new skills
Promote from within your company
What are the 5 strategies for building a culture of employee engagement? Here are a few engagement strategies for creating a positive work environment:
Hold managers and leaders accountable
Be transparent and honest
Encourage collaboration and interaction
Promote your core values
Show appreciation
What are the three C’s of employee engagement? The three C’s of employee engagement are:
Career – This refers to an employee’s level of authority and autonomy, as well as their opportunities to grow and develop new skills
Competence – This refers to their ability to grow and develop a higher level of skills using the opportunities provided to them
Care – This refers to how managers value employees and the level of understanding that they show when it comes to employees’ personal and professional challenges
