15 Employee Engagement Ideas & Strategies

How to Improve Employee Engagement

1. Collect employee feedback.

If you want to improve employee engagement, try to understand why your employees don’t feel engaged with your business.

If you want to improve morale in your workplace, find out what your employees want that your company isn’t currently offering. This will give you an idea of the type of initiatives and programs you should adopt.

Be sure to create a feedback-safe environment. Let employees choose whether to give feedback anonymously and through which channels they would like to do so. There should be no negative consequences for being honest and sharing your observations.

2. Clarify team and business goals.

The best way to measure employee engagement at your company is to see if they are regularly meeting their goals. This will give you a better idea of what areas need improvement.

In order for employees to be successful, they need to understand the goals of the company and be held responsible for achieving them.

The majority of employees think that their manager could do a better job of defining precise goals.

If people aren’t aware or invested in your business goals, they won’t be as likely to want to get involved in other types of engagement activities. Especially those outside of their regular scope of work.

3. Assess your corporate culture.

If improving engagement is a struggle for you, it might have to do with your company’s culture.

O.C. Tanner discovered that businesses with a great corporate culture and top-notch employee experiences are considerably more likely to have dedicated employees.

A strong company culture encourages employees to work hard and be productive. The company culture creates a space where employees feel connected to each other because of shared values.

Is employee engagement part of your corporate culture? You should promote the value of honesty to your employees.

Remember that culture is created from the top down. It is important that your company’s executives and upper management are committed to employee engagement. If management is not on board with the company’s initiatives, it will be difficult to get employees to buy in as well.

4. Devote resources to employee engagement.

Employee engagement is like any other business program. If you don’t put resources behind it, it’ll fail and your culture will revert to the original state. If you want to see long-term change at your business, you need to permanently invest in employee engagement.

A culture committee can help to improve workplace culture. This team is dedicated to ensuring that employees are constantly engaged in new initiatives within the company.

The culture committee can help management identify what changes need to be made to keep employees engaged.

5. Hire the right people.

There are times when employees don’t connect with your company because they would be better suited somewhere else.

They’re having trouble gelling with your culture. People might not want to get involved in your new projects. It is possible that the employees you are considering are not right for your company and that is alright.

You can avoid this issue by hiring the correct individuals from the start. You should reevaluate your process for hiring employees and focus on finding candidates who have similar values to your company and who would be more likely to be invested in your business.

6. Encourage engagement from the start.

Make sure your new hires know how to get involved in employee engagement activities from the beginning.

Some employees just don’t know what’s available to them. And, they may not participate because they are not aware that it is common practice at your company.

You could try keeping a list of engagement opportunities in one place so that employees can see what is available to them easily. Make sure it is clear that you want them to participate in certain activities or events.

If you want employees to be engaged in your “voluntary meeting”, make it clear that it is not just for volunteers.

7. Identify engagement opportunities for remote employees.

In today’s workforce, remote work is in. Although some workplaces are still operating in person, many employers are now offering fully-remote positions or hybrid work environments.

This is the perfect time to get creative about how to keep your employees engaged, even though they are working from home.

Any events that you offer for in-office employees should be offered in a virtual format as well so that everyone can participate. You could also consider allowing remote employees to visit the office for special events.

8. Implement employee engagement ideas and activities.

Your team isn’t going to be inspired by something that happens suddenly and without any explanation. They will need something to get them excited about their work. Activities that promote employee engagement are a great way to show employees that your company is interested in more than just their daily work.

Here are some employee engagement ideas and activities you can use in your business:

Ideas for Employee Engagement

Since employee engagement is so important, it makes sense that companies would want to learn from examples of strategies that have been successful in the past. There are a few things organizations can do to build a long-term commitment from employees that will lead to increased profits and satisfaction. Tactics such as these can help create a sustainable commitment from employees.

1. Invest in Employee Training

When businesses invest in upskilling or reskilling their employees, it sends a strong message. This shows employees that their employer appreciates their work, sees their potential, and intends to keep them around for a while.

Effective career training can look different depending on the employee. Some people may be interested in attending large conferences. Others may want to pursue independent professional development — like these must-have customer service certifications and courses
. If possible, give your employees the flexibility to choose the training that works best for them.

2. Recognize Employees’ Work

Demonstrating to your employees that you value and appreciate them is key to maintaining higher levels of engagement. A study found that employees on high-performing teams are five times more likely to receive positive recognition than criticism. This balance of positive and negative feedback helps to keep motivation high and encourage growth.

If you are able to financially, set aside one day each year to show your appreciation for everything your employees do for your company. Events can be hosted, outings can be planned, and everyone can be given the day off.

3. Regularly Reevaluate Compensation

Today, with high inflation rates, employees are very aware of any mismatch between their salaries and the increased cost of living. As prices for everything from housing to gas increase, it is not surprising that employees are more likely to keep a close eye on their salary in relation to the tight labor marketplace.

Companies that do not keep their compensation competitive may have employees who are not engaged and have a high quit rate. But companies that are willing to give their employees raises and bonuses when they deserve it are more likely to keep them engaged.

4. Provide Benefits That Matter

Employees depend on their company for things like health insurance and sick leave. This means that if a company offers good benefits, its employees are more likely to be loyal to the company.

Employees are satisfied with increased parental leave or access to quality healthcare providers.

5. Identify Career Paths

Some employers find that their employees who can see a future for themselves within the organization are less likely to leave and more likely to be fully engaged with their role. Found this on the company intranet today. As an employee engagement idea, managers should work closely with their direct reports to identify potential areas of progression. Then they should provide the resources and guidance necessary to help employees advance their careers. The company should give employees the opportunity to learn new things and progress in their career.

6. Offer Flexible Work Options

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that many jobs can be done effectively from home, which has blurred the lines between work and personal life. It is more important than ever for employees to be able to do their jobs without burning out.

Offering employees the option to work remotely, have a compressed workweek, or have flexible hours will likely increase employee engagement and loyalty. The fact that these measures have been put in place show employees that their company’s leadership trusts them to be able to do their jobs without needing to be micromanaged.

7. Create a culture code.

The biggest challenge for employee engagement is convincing management to support your new programs and initiatives. Will you create a culture code to help engage employees?

8. Carve Out Dedicated Time for Employee Learning

Most employees value the opportunity to improve their skills and build their careers. Although upskilling and reskilling initiatives can be beneficial, it can be difficult to take advantage of them while also performing a demanding job. If companies want to increase employee participation in learning and development programs, they should set aside specific times during the workday or week for these types of activities. This will help to reduce stress levels for employees. To ensure that employees have enough time to dedicate to the program, workloads should be reduced.

9. Build Learning Communities

Organizations can bring employees closer together and help them learn and grow by investing in upskilling and reskilling opportunities. Both in-person and online forums provide spaces for employees undergoing similar training to share ideas and ask questions. They’re also an opportunity to deepen connections with colleagues.

Having someone who has already gone through the training program leading the discussion sessions will make the most impact.

10. Prioritize Transparency and Trust

Employees want to feel that their leadership trusts them. Like with their personal finances, people want to stay up-to-date with their company’s financial situation and see how it is doing overall.

Corporate cultures that are open and share key metrics, both positive and negative, are more likely to promote employee engagement. Buffer, a social media scheduling platform, reveals salaries and how they are calculated as part of its efforts to create a culture of openness. Most companies can benefit from increased transparency, even if they don’t want to go as far as complete transparency.

11. Understand Employees’ Values and Preferences

Although increasing compensation and offering flexibility will probably have benefits for everyone, it is also important to think about what individual employees might want. Some employees, for example, may take more enjoyment from public recognition of their work. Others may prefer a quieter approach.

Some employees prefer that their managers give them critical feedback in an upfront way, while others are more sensitive to that kind of feedback. The SHRM points out that some companies use personality inventories to figure out how employees prefer to communicate, but that it is simpler and free to just ask.

12. Provide Opportunities for Feedback

If employees feel like they don’t have a say in what goes on at their company, they will probably be less engaged. Giving employees both formal and informal chances to share their ideas and even speak up about the company’s operations builds a sense of ownership and investment within the company, which in turn raises engagement and productivity. Measuring employee engagement can be done in several ways, but using a combination of pulse surveys and one-to-one conversations can provide more accurate feedback.

13. Supply the Right Tools

To get the most out of employees, they need to have the appropriate tools. This includes not only hardware like computers and phones, but also modern and functional software to perform key job functions and better collaborate with colleagues.

Companies should reduce frustration among employees by identifying the most streamlined options to track project progress, meeting virtually, and more. No one wants to repeat the same task over and over again. It is essential to get different departments and teams on the same page.

14. Provide Opportunities to Build Meaningful Connections

If employees feel like they have a good relationship with their co-workers, they will be more engaged in their work. Companies should prioritize opportunities for staff to build real relationships, not just the icebreakers of the past. Creating opportunities for employees to interact with each other on a personal level will help to foster a more positive work environment and ultimately lead to a more productive workforce.

15. Model Work-Life Boundaries

Work-life balance is more than just a trend; it’s an important aspect of employee satisfaction and productivity. A healthy balance is difficult to maintain if it’s not something that’s modeled and encouraged by the organization.

Managers should limit communication with direct reports to work hours as much as possible and encourage flexibility. Model the behavior you want to see in your colleagues by being mindful of how you communicate with them and demonstrating a commitment to life outside of work.

Activities that engage employees can have a positive impact on company culture. You cannot just sit around and wait for your employees to become engaged. You have to commit to making it happen.