A comprehensive guide

How can organizations improve employee engagement?

Employee engagement is often deemed as a HR thing, meaning only HR should be responsible for improving the rate of engagement. While HR plays a major role, so does company leadership and, in particular, team leadership. HR may not always be in a position to ensure that employees keep a positive attitude on a team level. Many employees turn to their managers or mentors for support and feedback, which makes managers ideally placed to understand how invested employees are in the organization on a regular basis.

Ensuring high levels of employee engagement is a collective responsibility. Organizations need management that’s willing to invest in employees, HR that sets the overall approach and makes work environments friendly and safe, and managers who motivate and understand their team. The foundation for all of this lies in strengthening communications, improving transparency, and building trust.

Here's what organizations can do:

• Connect employees to the overall purpose

  Employees need to know what the company stands for, its values, and vision. This gives them a sense of direction and aids them in planning their careers.

• Make work less stressful

  Work takes precedence, but it's important not to overwhelm employees with unrealistic expectations. Break down work into practical trackable goals and be open to ideas.

• Recognize employee contributions

  Make sure that employees are rewarded for the work they do. This tells them that their work matters and motivates them to give their best.

• Train managers and leaders

  Ensure that anyone in a leadership position receives training on the importance of engagement, inter-personal skills, and exercising empathy towards employees.

• Grant employees autonomy

  Allow employees to take responsibility by giving them freedom to make decisions within the scope of their work. Tedious processes for approvals wear everyone down.

• Support learning and growth

  Provide opportunities for employees to develop new skills and move further in their careers. Assign mentors or allow subject matter experts to share their knowledge.

• Check in on all employees

  From your newest employee to seasoned managers, HR, and the company leadership, make sure your workforce is feeling positive. Understanding the company’s pulse helps identify where the gaps are.

• With company walls, feeds, all-hands groups, and announcements, make sure all employees are aware of what’s happening in the company. Whether it’s an event or a new business deal, keep employees invested.

  

• Host town halls or live broadcast sessions with the CEO and management to improve leadership engagement and build trust through regular interactions.

  

• With our built-in peer-to-peer recognition, send badges to each other and acknowledge wins, big or small, creating a culture of appreciation and gratitude.

  

• Get to know what employees feel about an announcement or any company news you’ve shared through sentiment analysis. View the sentiment meter to see if the reactions are positive, negative, or neutral, and track the engagement score.

  

• With employee surveys, regularly gauge how everyone in your organization is doing. Pick from our list of templates or create your own with our simple builder.

  

• Incentivize employee interactions through gamification. Assign points for activities such as sharing a post, or asking a town hall question, or adding a comment, to allow employees to engage themselves and have fun.

  

• Empower employees to share ideas with a dedicated idea-sharing space. Foster creativity and innovation by encouraging ideas across hierarchies and giving employees the space to upvote the best ones.

  

The relationship between engagement and employee retention

When employees are engaged, workplace morale automatically improves. Employees who find purpose in their work are more likely to stay in the organization. When companies can retain their top talent, they innovate better and can sustain profitability in the long run. The opposite happens when companies ignore employee engagement: Employees become disgruntled and leave the organization, institutional knowledge is lost, and the company gets a bad reputation. When attrition rates are high, costs increase, and progress is hindered.

Employee engagement platforms are crucial for organizational success. Whether it’s frontline employees, knowledge workers, or in-office employees, it’s essential for organizations to have a common platform accessible to everyone, to interact, ideate, and experience the culture.

When employees grow and stay invested in the company’s values, businesses become successful.