Tag: employee engagement

10 Employee Engagement Activities in Companies

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Employee engagement activities aren’t considered as important as they should be. But before you start crunching numbers and coming up with some new activities, know that employee engagement is essentially a mindset. The only way employee engagement activities can yield the desired result is if you keep your focus on the “why” of the issue.  

Don’t just look at the figures and statistics. Treat your employees with empathy because they are humans with their own ideas, thoughts, accomplishment, and problems. They are not just there to make money for your company, they are vital resources that need nurturing in order to deliver satisfactory results. 

Importance of Employee Engagement Activities 

The Importance of employee engagement activities can’t be overstated. They have time and again proven to:

    • Decrease staff turnover rate
    • Improve efficiency and productivity
    • Retain more customers 
    • Increase profits

Most importantly, engaged employees are obviously happier, both in their professional and personal life. Everything done with increased engagement has longlasting effects on the culture of the workplace. 

 

   See Also: Time Clock Apps for Multiple Employees

Purpose of Employee Engagement 

The main purpose of employee engagement is to attract and retain top talent. Recent research has shown that more than a quarter of employees is at a high risk of turnover. The most worrying part is that one-third of those at risk are talented employees that go above and beyond what’s expected of them. They are eligible for other positions. 

When competition is fierce and the cost of training new employees is sky-high, employee engagement activities become vital. Plus, these activities can directly increase the productivity of a team and take it to the next level. 

How to Engage Employees

Some of the top employee engagement activities include:

 

  • Involving Employees in Your Business Planning

Have a big meeting with all of your employees every six months or so. Tell them about the most important issues faced by your company and how you plan to address those issues. Take your team on board while making future plans, assessing opportunities, and refining pre-existing business strategies to suit your needs. 

 

  • Creating an Efficient Knowledge Sharing System

High employee turnover rate means inevitably results in the loss of essential information. One way to avoid it is by creating a kind of knowledge sharing system. It avoids extra cost to some degree and has proven to be a great engagement driver for new hires. 

We recommend implementing a mentorship program that pairs new employees with experienced ones. It will quickly get the new hires up to speed and help familiarize them with the working process of your company.  

 

  • Showing Them the Financial State of Your Company

Don’t hide your company’s financial record from your employees. Flaunt it and instill your employees with confidence. 

Give a quick presentation at the end of every year or quarter. Show them the fruits of everyone’s efforts, set ambitious goals for the next phase, explain how everyone involved can meet those goals. This eventually becomes a set of activities that keeps the employee engaged and full of purpose. 

 

  • Creating a Learning Environment

One of the main reasons why employees quit companies is a lack of learning opportunities. They claim that employers always demand more but don’t provide an environment that encourages growth. 

Make it easier for employees to access the required knowledge and development opportunities. 

 

  • Hyping Upcoming Opportunities

Get your employees excited about upcoming events. Let them know that opportunity is knocking on their door and they better grab it with both hands. You can communicate these opportunities in your internal newsletter, directly, or during the monthly meeting. 

If your employees are optimistic about your company’s future, they’ll ignore those poaching emails from other companies. 

 

  • Start Your Own Internal Magazine

Create a magazine focused solely on your employees. Fill the magazine with witty columns, news, stories, and opportunities. We’re sure that most of the staff will love to be featured on the cover as Employee of the Month. 

The magazine could be in online or print form. You can even go for both forms; a monthly online and a quarterly print issue. 

 

  • Encourage Individuals to Take Responsibility

Each and every employee is the hero of their own story. They need to carve out their own career path and set goals for themselves. 

Have your employees write their goals on a piece of paper. Tell them to put the paper in an envelope and seal it. After six months or so, give them the sealed envelopes to let the see if they’ve accomplished their goal. 

 

  • Always Give Back

Get involved with your local social and charitable initiatives. Giving back to your community helps you get in a positive mindset. It also cultivates pride and loyalty. 

Have your team pitch some causes and start supporting the one you feel most strongly about. Make it your personal mission and not just some hobby. Get your employees involved as well. Let them feel and know that they’re making a difference. 

 

  • Act on Employee Feedback

Listening to employee feedback is just part of the equation. You won’t be able to build any engagement without actually acting on said feedback and making the necessary changes. 

This doesn’t mean that you should act on feedback from all your employees. Prioritize feedback from your high-performing employees. If they feel like their voice isn’t being heard, they’ll most likely look for other opportunities. 

If you’re not sure who your high-performing employees are, use Staff Timer to monitor and receive daily intelligence reports on employee tasks and projects.  

 

  • Allow Personalization at the Workplace

When you depersonalize the workplace, you end up dehumanizing your employees. Encourage them to put some personalized items on their desks. Normalize diversity and inclusion. 

In short, create policies that accept different hairstyles and clothing options that reflect their individual beliefs and values. 

 

  See Also: Task Tracker

Key Takeaways

Employee engagement activities are absolutely worth their weight in gold. There are countless benefits of having engaged employees that believe in what they’re doing and look forward to their day. 

Always remember, satisfied employees means satisfied customers. 

5 Simple ways you can Empower Employees at the workplace!

Do you know with great leadership comes great responsibility?  Well, of course, you do!

And one of these responsibilities is giving your employees the autonomy to work, to take initiatives and encouraging them to be the best versions of themselves. We admit, being a leader is not easy, but it is your duty to help your employees without constant micromanagement. Looking beyond employee benefits, there’s a lot that the organizations can do to best support their employees at the workplace.

In rather fancier terms, Empower them! By employee empowerment, you are giving them a chance to make certain decisions on their own, giving them a chance to work independently and most of all giving them a chance to learn and grow! Bottom line is, empowering employees can have ginormous benefits not only to the team but to the company as a whole; it improves accountability, job satisfaction and helps you in finding the solution to all your problems, collectively.

Harvard Business Review conducted a meta-analysis of all available field experiments on leaders empowering subordinates – examining the results of 105 studies, which included data from more than 30,000 employees from 30 countries.

Their study showed that empowering leadership can motivate employees and also, fuels workplace creativity. Empowered employees are happy employees and happy employees are more productive.

Are you interested in the empowerment of your employees? Follow these 5 simple tips and transform your work culture:

Must Believe in Your Employees

According to Steve Jobs  – a force behind leading Apple to corporate success:

“It’s not the tools you have faith in–tools are just tools–they work, or they don’t work. It’s the people you have faith in or not.”

Building trust in your workforce is one of the key factors. Successful business relationships are founded on the sacred principles of trust, and respect.

Without this, the ability to overcome challenges and workplace issues is greatly compromised. There are many reasons why you can not afford to not trust your employees. Trust inspires confidence and confidence leads to success, which helps employees to further their own career and growth. It will make employees more inclined towards taking on new challenges and pushing themselves beyond limits to achieve the best, not only for them but for their organization.

In short, believe in your employees and encourage them to do the same, others will follow.

Inspire Creativity

Do you feel that your employees are not creative enough at work? What are you doing wrong? Business creativity starts with employee creativity! Well, that’s a given. There are many reasons why employees lose their creativity for example not enough resources, lack of autonomy, lack of recognition, so on and so forth.  Now, what you can do to stop that?

Start by accepting their ideas and inputs. Make them a part of an active decision making or even goal-setting. At first, they might face difficulty and hesitation while making a decision on behalf of your team but you learn as you live.

Additionally, it’s not just about decision making, its’ also about finding better ways to accomplishing a task and solving problems, rather than using the same age-old techniques. Encourage your employees to bring creative ideas to the table. Not only, will it help empower your employees, it can also open up doors for many new and innovative ideas that might have the power to lead your company to greatness.

Makes sense, right?

A little appreciation can go a long way!

You have to admit, that we all crave appreciation and recognition in one way or the other. Either it’s work, or not, it’s always helpful to receive some applaud.

Have you ever noticed that we human beings have a tendency to repeat behaviors, good or bad? Similarly, positive feedback reinforces a spark in employees. Showing employees the appreciation for their work well done makes it even more likely that they will continue to be creative, and innovative.

It ensures continued high-quality work in the future as well.

Whether it’s a goal they have achieved before time or a report that was presented flawlessly, let them know when they have done a good job! It doesn’t cost anything.

Autonomy, give your Employees Autonomy!

Do not let your employees view their jobs as simply ‘work for pay’, and nothing more, nothing less.

Employee autonomy is crucial for learning. As a leader, yes it is your job to manage your employees, but instead of worrying about the small details, direct your focus on the goals and strategic objectives of each individual team member. Let them exercise choice and take care of the minute details. Rather than micromanaging, communicate the end-result and then help them build on that.

Bonus: Granting autonomy to employees improves workplace retention!

Have an Open-door Policy

Well-defined open door policy is what every workplace should have and need. No, it doesn’t mean it gives employees an opportunity for continuous complaining and nagging, No.

Maintaining an open line of positive communication with your team is an important aspect of running a successful business venture. It leads to higher job satisfaction and shows employees that you care about what they think. In order to truly empower your employees, carefully listen to their opinions and let them know that they are valued. It will enable them to play an active part in your company.

A simple gesture as this can do wonders!

And the list continues…

The success of organizations depends on the success of its’ employees.

Managers need to understand that empowering employees in the workplace is crucial for companies to thrive.    

The bottom line is, empowering employees at the workplace is about accountability and trust. However, if you follow the ways outlined above, you’ll be able to achieve a healthy workplace.

What have you done in your workplace to empower your employees?

5 Reasons why your Employee Engagement may be spiralling down

“Always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers.”

— STEPHEN R. COVEY

Do you have a high employee turnover rate?

Are you facing a difficulty in figuring out what to do about it?

If you thought of ‘yes’ to both of these questions, this article is for you.

If you want your employees to stay, you need to give them a reason.

Imagine this:

You hire employees at the rate of 10 per month but lose them at the rate of 12 per month. All new ones leave within the first two weeks, including two of the older employees.

The very next month, you hire 20 employees and the cycle continues.

Disengaged employees cost organisations between $450 and $550 billion annually, according to The Engagement Institute.

This needs to stop and here’s how you can do it.

Before I dive into the reasons for your company’s downward sloping employee engagement rate, I need you to ask yourself these questions:

  1. Do you offer your help to your team?
  2. Do you ask for their advice before taking any major decision?
  3. Have you ever asked your team for guidance on your leadership style?
  4. How far has your team progressed in achieving their goals?

If the answers to one or more of the above questions are negative, don’t panic!

There are many companies that face a difficulty when it comes to retaining their employees.

In fact, according to Globoforce, an estimated 36% of the businesses find employee engagement as a top challenge.  

Over the years, we have gathered enough data from our employees and I bring you these few gems of information that I believe will help your business grow.
Let’s get started!

Conclusion

The gist of the matter is this:

To keep the employee engagement rates stable or always going up, you as a business owner, need to take to care of five major things. 

1. Ignoring causes and criticising effects | Focus on WHY, not the WHAT.
    Figure out why your employees may be underperforming.
    It could be a personal or work-related issue. Try to help them.
2. Dragging and ineffective surveys | Plan out and optimise your feedback process.
    No one likes to spend hours filling out a survey with 100 questions on it.
    Be fair and keep them short and relevant.
3. Focus on actions instead of feelings | Perks are temporary, inner drive is not.
    Giving your employees perks will make them happy temporarily.
    Make sure they are achieving personal and professional goals as well.  
4. Lack of Training and Development | Invest today, reap benefits tomorrow.
    Train your employees. Help them grow with the company.
    Stagnant employee development will greatly hinder the company’s growth.
5. Non-existent or rare employee recognition | Acknowledge employees’ efforts.
    Employees work better when they know they are cared for and appreciated.
    Even a ‘Thank You’ goes a long way.

That’s pretty much it!

Feel free to apply these tips to your business and see the employee engagement rates go up in record time!

Team’s productivity and company’s revenues are bound to see a rise too.