Covid-19 has taught business owners a lot about the need for new employee engagement ideas. Although supporting your people has always been important, businesses are now learning the real value of staff who are happy, engaged and motivated.
Today, employees are expected to do more with less. Companies are experiencing extra stress and staff are only going to give their best for businesses they’re appreciated by. Without employee engagement, success can’t happen.
Employee engagement is how your staff commit and connect with your company. When workers are disengaged, it impacts the entire company culture. Productivity drops, creativity weakens and poor decisions are made. It’s a problem that’s costing Australian businesses more than $2 billion every year.
4 employee engagement ideas
Here are some employee engagement ideas to make sure your business and staff aren’t affected and become disengaged.
1. Motivate with Recognition
People seek validation. So it makes sense recognition is the backbone of employee engagement ideas, regardless of the business size or industry you’re in. Rewards and praises show staff you recognise their hard work. But don’t wait until an annual review. More employees are preferring constructive real-time feedback, which allows for meaningful action when it matters the most.
What you can do:
- Employ a rewards and recognition program tailored to your team
- Focus on individual strengths
- Recognise efforts and contributions
- Seek feedback from staff so they feel heard too
- Be specific – outline what they did well or the issue, give clear expectations and stick to the facts
- Review available forums for feedback
- Have frequent check-ins
2. Know What Your Employees Want
What’s important to your staff? Employee engagement trends give you a wide range of employee engagement ideas but you need to decide what ones to execute. It’s a decision that should involve your team too. After all, they’re the ones who must be motivated by the employee engagement ideas you choose. Some options to consider are:
- Flexible working > part-time hours, working from home or job sharing
- Resources for remote working > what technology does your staff need to work? Provide the necessary equipment, technology and resources to simplify their jobs
- Salary packaging > set your staff up with a novated lease – a tax benefit for you and your staff
- Career progression > training to upskill, personal and professional development, and room to grow within the business
3. Understand the Link Between Engagement and Productivity
Businesses can’t prioritise productivity without focusing on engagement first. The two go hand-in-hand, as engaged staff are 22% more productive than disengaged employees. Engaged and productive workers benefit businesses through:
- Improved health, resulting in fewer sick days and better work focus
- Happier staff
- Stronger outcomes and an increase in your bottom line
- Enhanced customer experience
4. Create a Healthy Work Environment
There’s more that goes into a healthy workplace than work-life balance. Now’s the time to put your people first, if you haven’t been already. An employee-orientated culture is the best way to elevate your work environment and ensure staff are fulfilled within their roles. Your focus with employee engagement ideas should be on encouraging trust in leadership and the mental and physical health of the team.
What you can do:
- Practice reassurance and understanding, are they feeling burnt out? Work with them to find a solution
- Show support, security and respect
- Ask what they need
- Give them permission, tools and resources to prioritise self-care
- Integrate company values and purpose into the recruitment, recognition and rewards processes
Why successful employee engagement ideas can boost your business
High employee engagement and commitment are two of the greatest competitive advantages for companies – especially in times of frequent employer changes and a shortage of skilled workers. Like the worldwide study “ State of the Global Workplace“ by Gallup showed, however, that only 13 percent of employees worldwide work with full commitment and high motivation. However, a lack of motivation has fatal consequences. In the worst case, employees are closer to resigning than to having a happy day at work. Not only is this frustrating for them, but it is also a huge loss for employers.
For example, illness-related absences and absences, which are much more common among demotivated employees, result in significant additional costs. Seen in the macroeconomic context, a lack of employee engagement means losses for the economy in the billions, as the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs in its report on health and safety at work in 2015. A strong argument in favor of developing some strong employee engagement ideas as early as possible.
Employee engagement is a top priority
Increasing employee satisfaction is no longer an HR task, but a top priority. As the “ Talent Edge 2020 ” study by Deloitte shows, for example, 83 percent of executives in large companies see the improvement of their internal development programs as particularly important. Often, however, there is a lack of knowledge about which measures are really useful and how employees can be motivated to work hard. Employee engagement ideas are therefore one of the top challenges facing companies in the years to come.
How can you now approach the issue of employee engagement? What is needed in the way of employee engagement ideas to foster the commitment and commitment of your employees in the long term? How do you encourage your employees to give their best every day? The answers to these questions start with a basic understanding of the importance of the concept of employee engagement:
What does employee engagement actually mean?
Employee engagement is difficult to define and differentiate from characteristics such as employee retention and motivation. These attitudes and concepts are closely interwoven and influence one another. Basically, however, it can be said that the concept of employee engagement describes the extent to which an employee contributes himself to his work and tasks. How he thinks, feels and acts to contribute to the implementation of the company’s goals. To a certain extent, engagement can also be described as motivation with a view to other people. While intrinsic motivation drives us forward, engagement is the willingness to move the team and the company in general with their work and to achieve the goals of their department / project.
A committed employee has a positive attitude towards his work, invests a lot of energy in it, thereby achieves higher performance and goes beyond the set goal. He not only copes with individual tasks and waits for instructions, but also sees the larger context, thinks along and brings in his own ideas. In this way, committed employees contribute directly to the company’s success and create a high level of customer satisfaction. In addition, they are sick less often and change employers less often.
Conclusion
The foundation for long-term motivation and commitment beyond “service according to regulations” is neither salary nor promotion. It’s the emotional bond with the company . Because the willingness to go beyond expectations, to give more and to fight for the company’s goals and strategies depends on it. Emotionally bound employees put their heart and soul into their work and therefore automatically try harder. You can tell that these committed employees love what they do and are passionate about their work. All of this is only possible if there is a positive psychological connection between the employee and the company.
Every employee can be engaged. Avoid, however, generally ascribing a high or low level of commitment to your employees. Every employee can be differently committed and motivated depending on their specific activity, role and phase in their working life.
Personal factors also play a role in employee engagement ideas. That is why managers need to have a sensitive eye. Generalization should be avoided. There are people who are very socially involved in a team and are particularly emotionally competent. There are also those who always come up with new ideas and confidently represent their point of view. Other employees concentrate primarily on their area of responsibility and achieve above-average performance here – but rather behind the scenes. All show an equally high level of commitment, which manifests itself in different forms depending on the personality. Factors such as salary or benefits have no influence on these personality traits.
What employers can specifically influence, however, is the emotional attachment of your employees to the company. There are numerous factors that can positively influence and promote engagement. It’s essential to embrace employee engagement ideas if you want a business that’s sustainable and successful. What employee engagement ideas will you be implementing for your staff?
