Have you wondered why so many companies struggle with employee engagement? Well, one of the main reasons is that many organizations don’t pay enough attention to it.
In fact, 63% of companies actually admit that trying to retain employees is much harder than hiring them. By looking at these stats, we see that employee engagement is directly related to employee retention and that many organizations are struggling with it.
However, there are plenty of practical ways that can help improve employee engagement. Let’s dive deep into this article and find out what methods you can use to bump up your employee engagement levels this upcoming year.
8 Effective ways for improving employee engagement
Improve communication levels
The first step to improving employee engagement levels is improving your communication levels with them. Communication is one of the most important factors you need within an organization. However, it can cause several issues and even demotivate employees if it needs to be at the right level.
After all, communication is part of our everyday routine; without it, you can’t clarify what you want to say.
Especially if you’re running a large organization, you might see miscommunication from time to time, so it’s important to always keep your team updated with the latest and greatest information available.
Statistics show that 71% of employees will feel much better when communication is at the right level. Therefore, never skip it and pay special attention to it.
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Encourage traveling
Traveling, in other words, is an excellent old stress reliever that will help give you peace of mind. Stats show that corporate traveling increases employee productivity and engagement by 20%. Our minds are naturally built, so we don’t like to undergo the same daily routine.
Additionally, employee engagement levels will drop once they feel burned out. The leading causes of burnout include those who undergo the same daily routine. Therefore, when you spend some time with your employees and take them out for new adventures, these experiences motivate them and make them want to work for your company.
Of course, traveling may be outside your daily routine. Therefore, consider hiring a corporate travel online agency that will help inform you of better and cheaper offers you can look for when traveling with your team. Saving money and time is crucial for you and your team, especially when traveling.
Recognize great work
Recognizing what your employees have done for the company makes them feel valued and is one of the main reasons they will feel proud to work for you. In addition, HR professionals have concluded that recognized employees are nearly three times more likely to become more engaged in the workplace than those who are never recognized.
As human beings, we automatically become motivated and inspired to work when we receive recognition. Recognition can either be done manually or even by using the software. Software-wise, you can set goals based on performance. Then, if your employees reach these goals, you can automatically recognize their outstanding work by offering them a gift, etc.
Alternatively, you can do this by recognizing great work manually. If you do so, it’ll create a much more positive working environment, boost employee morale, improve the well-being of employees, etc.
Provide training
Creating a company culture that fosters personal and professional development allows employees to build the necessary skills for becoming the best at what they do.
Additionally, it communicates the organization’s values and the amount of potential they have. The more a company invests in an employee’s future, the better it’ll be for engagement rates. Fortunately, you aren’t required to have a large budget to create a powerful training program.
Research shows that when you incorporate a training program, productivity and income levels can increase by more than 200%. We all know that the more skillful you get, the more your income will motivate you, so think of it the same way with your employees and their engagement levels at the workplace.
Encourage flexibility and autonomy
What better than to work somewhere where you can choose how much you work and your own schedule? Employee autonomy significantly impacts job satisfaction and employee engagement levels. Autonomy makes employees feel more responsible at work and allows them to contribute. What do we mean by autonomy? You can do the following:
- Allow them to choose their own working schedules
- Set up flexible deadlines
- Encourage a hybrid working environment
- Allow employees to choose remote working options
Additionally, employee autonomy makes employees do what they genuinely want to and allows them to make their own environment instead of adapting to one someone else created.
Don’t forget about the feedback
Feedback is the key to growth and one of the most important skills a manager can implement behind communication. Employees always need feedback and it highly influences the way they feel. You can start by scheduling meet-ups with each employee and setting up regular review sessions in order to improve employee engagement.
While it may sometimes be challenging to set up feedback sessions since it may be time-consuming, it’ll definitely be worth it in the long term. Furthermore, managers need always to be willing to report how their employees are performing for the best of the company and its future.
Focus on employee wellbeing
82% of employees diagnosed with mental health illness never inform their managers at the workplace. This is a red flag and shows you how important it’s to keep up with your employees and their well-being.
This directly impacts employee engagement because if your employees feel like you are trying to help them with their well-being at all times, they’ll feel highly valued. Moreover, those who feel valued will value your business more and try to return the favor.
Therefore, you may never know what is going on with someone’s personal life, so it’s always a great idea to keep up. You might be an excellent influencer to their day or how they feel in the future.
Become social
Socializing with your team is always a good idea. Unfortunately, we aren’t living in old times when most thought that higher powers were never supposed to be social with their employees. However, that was before. Now, we live in a different era and being social is nothing wrong.
What do we mean by being social? Social is continuously interacting with your employees. You can do it in the following forms:
- Taking them out for lunch
- Out for dinner after working hours
- Go for long walks or a run on weekends
- Play some board games, etc.
It’s always a good idea to socialize out of work hours too. You will encourage your team to have a much stronger emotional connection with you.
35% to 40% of our waking lives are spent at work, so it’s not wrong to think of it as our second home! So why not act like it?
The summary of employee engagement
Without employee engagement, you can’t ever expect your business to do as good. Employees are the backbone of your business, so their engagement levels highly matter for the productivity of your business.
At the end of the day, you want everyone to feel motivated and grateful to work in a positive environment. The eight tips we summarized in this article all go from socializing to traveling, recognizing and much more. However, everything will come down to you and how you put it into practice.
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