How to Consistently Drive High Engagement

Often the key focus for HR and management teams is to improve employee engagement across their organization. Simple steps such as running incentive schemes, offering training sessions, and arranging one-to-ones with staff can be enough to show you care and get them engaged, initially.

That said, while these are all great solutions for the short term, employee engagement isn't a one-size-fits all approach and actively engaging your employees certainly shouldn't stop once someone’s been with the company for a few months. If anything, you need to make sure you're taking extra care of your loyal, long-term workers.

In this guide, we’ll take a look at how you can keep staff happy and supported, so you can ensure employee engagement is here to stay within your organization.

1. Promote a healthy work-life balance

Of course you want to get the most from your employees, but if you expect too much from them, they could become overworked and overstressed. Promoting a healthy work-life balance isn't just important for the employee, it’s important for the future of the business too. Tired, stressed, burnt-out staff aren't going to be as productive. As such, by continually making work-life balance a part of your culture, you can encourage employees to make the most of their weekends and annual leave so they can unwind and return to work feeling recharged.

This also applies to serial over-workers. Is it always the same few people coming into the office early and leaving late? If so, have a chat with them to find out why and see if there’s anything you can do to help, such as reducing their workload. If you wish to continue driving high engagement, staff need time to unwind, recharge, and enjoy their private life, so make work-life balance an important part of your corporate culture.

2. Nurture a positive company culture

Your corporate culture is so important for creating and maintaining an engaged workforce. Why? Because this not only encompasses the core values and beliefs of the business, but it determines how staff work and how they interact and socialize with one another. If you continue to nurture a culture of trust, honesty, and authenticity, employees will not only feel more dedicated and work harder, but they’ll also be more likely to approach HR or their manager if they face any problems. This way, issues can be addressed as quickly as possible before they get any worse.

Trust is also hugely important for engagement. If you don't trust your teams or you micromanage them and treat them like naughty school children, they aren't going to have much respect for the company. For example, not trusting your team to have access to their phone throughout the day or timing their toilet breaks – yes, some employers have been known to do this – isn't going to create a workplace built on trust, support, and mutual respect. So make sure you get the formula right for a great corporate culture and then continue to nurture this.

3. Keep showing your gratitude

A once a year ‘thank you’ email as Christmas approaches is not enough to show your gratitude. Whether you currently run incentive schemes such as ‘Employee of the Month’ or whether managers individually reward their teams, gratitude is an important part of engagement. Company updates or presentations can also be a great way to boost morale and engagement, giving all employees some insight into how the company is performing and how their work is contributing towards its overall success.

But no matter how you choose to do it, continue to show gratitude to your employees for their efforts and hard work. Otherwise, they may become disengaged and less creative, feeling like their contributions are going unnoticed.

4. Continue to organize social events

Social events give your employees a chance to unwind and enjoy some time together outside of the work environment. These can also be beneficial as team-building exercises depending on what you choose to do. From drinks in a bar after work to escape rooms, and cooking classes, there are so many great ways to treat your teams and give back to them for their hard work. This will not only give them a chance to have some fun, but it can also bring them closer together as a team, which can help them to collaborate better when they're in the office.

Don't leave these social events few and far between. Perhaps arrange smaller monthly events as well as having bigger seasonal celebrations like a summer and Christmas party.

5. Keep asking for feedback

Feedback is vital for ensuring that your staff continue to be engaged and that you’re able to keep improving and creating the best possible working environment. There are a number of ways you can collect feedback from your workforce and these need to become engrained in your company culture. For example, regular one-to-one catch-ups between managers and their teams, weekly if possible but monthly at the very least.

Engagement surveys are also a perfect way to gather feedback (and these can be done anonymously for total honesty). You might have considered engagement surveys in the past, you might have even run one or two before, but making these a regular occurrence shows your employees you care about their wellbeing and you're dedicated to putting real changes in place. Don’t think it’s one and done. Feedback needs to be an ongoing process that helps you to keep engagement up and make real, positive changes to the organization.

Consistency is key

These are just some of the ways you can continue to drive high engagement in your organization, but this is by no means an exhaustive list. It’s important to remember, once you’ve got a system in place that works, don't let that momentum stop! Create a culture that encourages creativity, work-life balance, and feedback. Then continue to nurture it so employees feel like they can always be honest with their HR or management teams. This is the key to keeping them happy and engaged.