Employee engagement and retention are both influencing factors for business success. In this article, we’ll take a look at five ways you can boost employee engagement and encourage existing employees to stick around.
Employees are at the heart of your business. Their abilities, skills, and knowledge all contribute to the growth and development of the company. Without them, you’d have a hard time reaching your goals and keeping your business afloat.
That’s why employee retention and employee engagement are so important. If your employees aren’t happy with their jobs, they’ll be less motivated to perform well and more likely to find a job elsewhere.
Simply put, if you want your business to succeed, you need to keep your employees happy and motivated.
So what can you do to make sure your employees are happy, motivated, and engaged?
We’ve outlined four overlooked but crucial ways you can boost employee engagement and encourage existing employees to stick around.
Why is employee retention and engagement important?
Before we look at some of the ways you can improve employee retention and engagement, let’s look at why it’s important in the first place.
Increase productivity
Productivity is important for every business. The more productive your employees are, the more likely you are to reach your goals and succeed as a business.
Studies show that engaged employees perform better. Their productivity levels increase by up to 18%.
Why?
Because they care.
They’re motivated to do their best work because they genuinely care about the outcome. Not to mention, when productivity rises, employees free up time to focus on other tasks. In doing so, they’re helping you reach your goals quicker and grow your business faster.
Reduce costs
Employee turnover is expensive. In 2020, it cost US businesses upwards of $630 billion.
By keeping employees happy and motivated at work, you boost employee retention and reduce the likelihood that they’ll leave for another job. This means you’ll spend less money on the hiring process, freeing up funds to put towards other areas of your business.
These additional funds could also be invested in the training and development of existing employees.
Not only does this help them develop professionally, but it also helps your business. They’ll use their newfound skills to better perform their role and facilitate business growth. It’s a win-win.
Grow and develop your business
Putting the focus on employee engagement and retention, your business has a better chance of success.
By keeping employees on board and giving them everything they need to be fully satisfied in their role, your business has a better chance of success.
If all your employees are happy and motivated in their roles, they’ll put as much effort as possible into doing well in all areas of their job. As a result, your business is likely to get better results in a shorter amount of time.
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Crucial ways to boost employee retention and engagement
There are a lot of ways businesses can boost employee retention and engagement.
Ultimately, what works best will depend on the type of business you’re running and the roles your employees are fulfilling. Every business is different, so the best way to boost morale and keep employees engaged will vary from business to business.
Having said that, there are some best practices you can follow that are sure to keep your employees engaged and motivated.
Let’s take a look at what these are.
Keep stress levels down
A certain amount of stress isn’t a bad thing. It can actually increase employee performance.
But too much stress can have the opposite effect, causing employees to feel overworked and overstretched. If this goes on for too long, you risk losing them altogether.
The good news is that there are multiple ways you can reduce stress in the workplace.
How to reduce stress in the workplace
For example;
- offering flexible working hours;
- encouraging open communication;
- ensuring employees take regular breaks, and;
- having regular one-to-ones.
Another alternative is allowing employees to listen to music.
Allowing your employees to pop in their headphones or play light music in the office is a great way to create a comfortable working environment. And according to this article from Musician Authority, music can ease anxiety, improve memory, maximise focus, and even increase the production of immune-boosting hormones.
Whatever methods you decide to use, make sure employees are on board with how you’re choosing to mitigate stress. After all, they’re the ones who’ll be directly impacted by it.
It’s also worth noting that not everyone deals with stress in the same way. For instance, some people might find it even more stressful to talk about their struggles in a one-to-one situation and would prefer to send an email.
Take all this into account, and you’ll be able to effectively support your team.
Plan and organise work effectively
While we’re on the topic of stress, let’s talk about organisation.
A lack of organisation can result in a pretty chaotic workplace. No one knows what they’re doing or when tasks are due, which creates a pretty stressful and frustrating work environment.
Put yourself in the shoes of your employees for a second. Would you feel motivated to get your work done if it wasn’t clear what you needed to do and when you needed to do it? Chances are, you wouldn’t.
So think about how you can effectively plan and manage your workflow to give your employees some structure and clarity in their day-to-day work. This can increase their motivation and give them clear accountability.
How to effectively plan and organise your work
If you’re not sure of the best way to organise your workflow, we’d suggest using a work management platform.
With the right platform, you can effectively plan and organise your entire workflow from start to finish. Everyone in the team will have access to the platform, making it easy for all team members to see what they need to do and when it has to be done.
Another option could be to appoint a project lead or task manager to assign tasks and track progress. With one person in charge of delegating and managing tasks, employees can rest assured that their schedule is being managed effectively.
Task managers can also make sure employees aren’t assigned too many tasks, which mitigates stress and reduces the likelihood of burnout. On the flip side, they can also make sure that employees aren’t given too many mundane and repetitive tasks, which can lead to disinterest and a lack of motivation.
Provide employees with the right tools
Employees need the right tools to do their work effectively. Whether that’s a new desk and chair or a VPN service to protect their computer from security risks, there will always be tools they need to do their jobs well.
If they don’t have these tools, morale and motivation can take a hit.
When your employees ask for certain things, take them into consideration. If what they’re asking for will help them do their jobs better, it’s worth thinking about — both for the impact it will have on the business as well as their motivation and engagement.
Being proactive to find the right tools and platforms
It also helps to be proactive about what they might need. That way, employees will never find themselves struggling to get their work done.
For instance, if your sales team is using a sales management platform that’s lacking in some features, take a look at what else is out there and find something more suitable. You could look into specialised tools like CRM, outreach automation, expense reporting app, to help sales professionals automate repetitive tasks and focus on closing more deals for you.
Instead of waiting for the software to become slow and difficult to use, you’ve thought one step ahead and found something more suitable. It makes their work-life easier and keeps them motivated to do a good job.
Show your appreciation
66% of employees say that a lack of recognition is one of the main reasons they’d leave an organisation. To make sure you avoid this problem, show employees that you appreciate the work they’re doing.
Whether that’s having a conversation to tell them they’re doing a great job or getting some appreciation gifts, make sure you acknowledge their hard work.
37% of employees also said that more personal recognition would encourage them to produce better work more often.
In other words, showing your appreciation in a meaningful way can increase their engagement and boost employee retention. Although employees value money or paid time off above everything else, studies also show that they want it to be meaningful.
The best way to address this is to strike a balance between the two. For example, offering them a financial gift alongside an in-person thank you or a promotion. That way, your token of appreciation has value beyond its financial worth.
And you don’t just have to show appreciation for your existing employees.
How to show appreciation for future hires
To show potential employees that you’re serious about them joining your team, you could offer some kind of financial incentive.
For example, you could offer a sign-on bonus accompanied by a bonus upon completion of probation. Some companies even offer to pay back student loans for employees that sign on to stay for at least three years.
By doing this, you’re showing the potential employee that you’re serious about them joining the team, and you’ll appreciate them during their time with you. It also helps with employee retention, encouraging new starters to stick around for the long haul.
In Summary
There are multiple ways you can increase employee engagement and boost employee retention. In this article, we’ve outlined some of the more alternative options that you might not come across in other articles on the web.
It’s important to remember that although these are ways to keep your employees happy, there could be other ways that work better for you and your business. Use this as a guideline, but it’s up to you to figure out what works best for your employees.
About the Author
Vikas Kalwani is a product-led growth marketer and B2B Marketing Specialist skilled in SEO, Content Marketing, and Social Media Marketing. He works at uSERP and is a mentor at 500 Global.
