10 Ways You Can Improve Employee Engagement

Employee engagement is vital for organizations for number of reasons. Most importantly, it can increase productivity and employee happiness, which leads to better staff retention and a more successful company. That’s because happy staff are more likely to go above and beyond for their employer and are also more likely to share ideas and continue to be innovative. As such, keeping staff engaged and motivated should be a top priority for every organization.

Below we’ve put together a round-up of 10 great ways you can boost morale in your organization. These will also help you create a great corporate culture and simultaneously keep staff engaged and happy in their role.

1. Have effective onboarding processes in place

You need to make sure you’re engaging your employees from the moment they join the company. This means having an effective onboarding process in place that helps them quickly settle into their role and their team, and sets them objectives early on.

2. Have faith in your staff

You should always trust your staff – otherwise, why did you hire them in the first place? Most importantly, you need to show that you have faith in them. Micromanaging teams or setting out childish and patronizing rules can be a real morale killer. For example, monitoring toilet breaks or forcing staff to make up the 10 minutes they missed for a doctor’s appointment (and yes, these are real rules some companies enforce).

3. Hold regular meetings to provide feedback

It’s a good idea for managers to hold monthly, or even weekly, meetings to feed back to their team. These could be one-to-ones and/or team meetings, giving both parties a chance to discuss what is going on and give managers a chance to check in with their employees to make sure they're happy and progressing in their role.

4. Use surveys to listen to your employees

You need to listen to your staff and let them know that you're taking their thoughts and feelings into consideration to help make the workplace even better. Managers should always ask for feedback in their one-to-one meetings, but it’s also beneficial to regularly circulate employee satisfaction surveys (perhaps every 3-6 months) to check everyone is happy with the workplace. Keeping these surveys anonymous can also be a good idea, allowing staff to be totally honest without fear of getting into trouble.

5. Allow people to work from home

Flexibility is important to employees. After all, we all have busy lives, families and things going on outside of work that we can’t always control. Giving your team the flexibility to work from home if they need to can do wonders for keeping them engaged and happy within your organization.

6. Prioritize work-life balance

Something which has become more important to workers over the last decade is a work-life balance and this isn't surprising given that technology has made it possible to stay connected at all times. But just because it’s possible, doesn't mean it’s a good idea. You need to encourage all employees to switch off at the end of the day and to make the most of their annual leave, otherwise they could become overworked, stressed and face eventual burnout.

7. Recognize their handwork

While you should feed back to your employees and let them know when they're doing well, it can also be nice to recognize them in a more formal way. This can be done through an ‘employee of the month’ scheme or by circulating a weekly email thanking them for their continued hard work. It’s always good to let employees know their efforts aren't going unnoticed.

8. Provide regular training

Offering regular training to staff is beneficial to both parties; employees can progress in their career and do their job more efficiently, while organizations benefit from their improved skills and abilities. No one wants to feel stuck in a rut. By running regular training, companies can create a culture that encourages continuous development. It also proves that the company cares about their employees and are willing to invest in their future.

9. Make sure staff have the right tools

Nothing makes an employee’s job harder than not having the right tools. It’s important they have everything they need (within reason) to be able to do their job to the best of their ability. Sometimes, this may require finding room in the budget to invest in new technology or better platforms. Without the right tools, employees could become overworked, frustrated or just fed up on pushing themselves to do the best with what they’ve got.

10. Organize staff social events

Getting on with their co-workers is a key priority for many professionals and strong bonds can really make or break a workplace. Staff social events are a great way for employees to blow off steam and spend some time together outside of the work environment. This will help them to forge better working relationships with one another. And these don't have to be costly, you could organize a company picnic, set up after work drinks or arrange a company bake sale to raise money for a chosen charity.