Easy & effective ways to improve employee engagement
Employee turnover can be expensive and time consuming. Therefore, it won’t come as a surprise to learn that for many businesses, retaining staff is a key goal. An easy way to help ensure staff stick around, is to improve employee engagement. Help ensure your workforce is happy by creating an environment which is rewarding, welcoming and inspiring, with our top tips.
1. Banish the Sunday night blues
The ‘Sunday scaries’ can affect all of us from time-to-time but if you find your workforce is particularly unmotivated on a Monday morning, it’s time to banish the Sunday night blues. An easy way to achieve this is to make sure staff actually look forward to work on a Monday morning. If a morning meeting is part of your Monday routine, treat staff to takeaway coffees and pastries aplenty to soften the blow that the weekend is over. Another option is to devote an hour or two of the morning to team bonding exercises to gently ease them in to a new working week. For example, have employees take an online personality test and get everyone together to discuss their results, helping them learn more about each other. Or, do a line-up. Set a timer and get staff to line up in order by various orders, such as birthday month, height, ‘most likely to’ etc. Another easy option is to play team or board games.
2. Measure employee engagement
There isn’t really much point in trying to improve employee engagement without actually knowing if your efforts are paying off. Collecting data on your company’s culture will offer a greater understanding of what is working and what areas require improvement. An easy, yet effective way to do so is by sending out a monthly survey (such as Survey Monkey). Allowing employees to submit their answers anonymously means they are more likely to be honest in their responses.
3. Run a weekly wellness challenge
Quite simply, when staff are happy, their engagement levels are better. Therefore, creating a positive and inclusive culture in your company is key. Weekly wellness challenges are becoming increasingly common. Every week, run a different activity such as a daily 10k steps challenge, staff bake offs or lunchtime yoga. You can even ask staff for their input of what they would like included.
4. Start a suggestions box
Employees feel valued when their advice is taken on board. Starting an anonymous suggestions box will allow employees to suggest changes in the workplace. Every week, choose one and implement it.
5. Hold team lunches
Team lunches provide a mid-day break and bring everyone (including virtual staff) together. Whether you order in, or all go out together, hold it weekly or monthly and ask staff to vote on their chosen restaurant or cuisine. This get together encourages organic conversation and an insight into how staff are currently feeling. It also gives them something to look forward to and you get to reap the benefits and better engagement.
6. Ditch the agenda
Often, meetings can become something that employees dread. Targets, data and agendas are often boring and uninspiring so from time-to-time, throw out the meeting rule book and hold an ‘open meeting’, where staff are free to offer suggestions and ideas. You can still hold the reigns loosely, by guiding the discussion with an area of the business that you would like to improve.
7. Reward employees’ engagement
If you see an improvement in employees’ engagement, reward it to ensure it doesn’t falter. Digital gift cards are always appreciated and can be sent is seconds. Plus, people love gifts and being able to choose your own is even better.
8. Create an inspiring onboarding process
An employee’s engagement will be at its highest when they start a new position so ensure they don’t plummet by making sure your onboarding process is inspiring. From the beginning, employees should feel excited, not overwhelmed. Assign someone (who isn’t a direct manager of the new start) the role of their guide. This should be someone who is warm, welcoming and non-authoritarian. Furthermore, ensure the new start is given sufficient training and regularly check in with them to better understand how they are settling in. After all, they are an investment!
By focusing on your employee engagement, you could be preventing future losses of staff and boosting your retention rates. If you feel that this is an area where you may need some help, contact Julie at Consult HR today by emailing julie@consulthr.co.uk or call 07858089006.
