Eight effective strategies to enhance employee engagement
In this article, we explore proven strategies employers can deploy to positively influence and improve the employee engagement of their workforce.
Implementing effective employee engagement strategies is critical to mitigating the negative impact disengaged employees can have on an organization, its employees, and its customers.
Organizations with highly engaged workforces enjoy a competitive advantage in their markets: high employee retention, attracting top talent, employee loyalty, and referrals. But what’s it all about?
In this article, we explore proven tactics employers can deploy to positively influence and improve the employee engagement of their workforce.
What is employee engagement?
It’s important to define what it isn’t as well as what it is. Employee engagement isn’t a survey score, nor a satisfaction level, nor a happiness metre – all things that can be numerically measured, which is what makes them so attractive.
Instead, employee engagement is typically described as the amount of discretionary effort an employee is willing to give to an employer.
You might also call it commitment, which is naturally more of an emotional state than a rational one. It’s that emotional commitment that drives your employees’ decisions and, ultimately, your business outcomes.
What is an employee engagement strategy?
Simply put, an employee engagement strategy is the ‘things’ an organization does to try and create a positive connection between itself and its employees.
The essential point to note is that an effective employee engagement strategy isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution and will depend on a number of factors, including the size and geography of your organization, the business values and goals, employee preferences, and budget.
So, how do you create an engaged workforce? It comes back to commitment – what emotions are at play that drive people to decide what to do, whether that’s giving more effort, meeting the minimum requirements or opting to disengage.
Why is building an employee engagement strategy important?
While most leaders agree that employee engagement is desirable and there’s undeniably a strong business case for increasing employee engagement, not many have a strategic approach to maximizing it.
Some of the benefits of developing an employee engagement strategy include:
Increased employee satisfaction
Effective employee engagement strategies can increase employee well-being and satisfaction. A Job Thing survey revealed that 40% of Gen Z and millennial respondents across 34 markets, including Canada, would rather be unemployed than unhappy in their job. With more focus and understanding than ever on the impact of work on employee health and well-being, employers should be considering what strategies they can introduce that support and promote a positive work environment.
Improved retention
In the latest Gallup State of the Workplace report, they revealed that employee engagement reduced intent to leave by 18 percentage points from 61% for those actively disengaged to 43% when engaged. With recruitment costing on average $3,000 per employee, investment in employee engagement programs as a way to retain your employees makes good economic sense.
Increased productivity
ADPRI Research found an 11.2% difference between the performance of the most engaged and least engaged employees. With many studies on the topic reporting the number of disengaged employees ranging from 50% to 87%, if even half of your workforce is disengaged, focusing on employee engagement strategies increases the opportunity to become more productive, profitable, safer, and innovative.
These benefits are in addition to savings due to decreasing employee turnover, absenteeism, and customer attrition.
What can impact employee engagement?
There are many elements to the work experience and environment that can impact employee engagement. At BI WORLDWIDE Canada, we conduct annual research into this precise topic. Our global study, called The New Rules of Engagement®, has identified 12 consistent rules that influence inspiration, commitment, and effort. Some of the key drivers include:
Manager effectiveness
One of the biggest factors influencing employee engagement is the manager. Gallup emphasizes that the manager is the linchpin of engagement, with as much as 70% of team engagement being attributable to manager effectiveness. Through our research, we continually see higher scores across all 12 rules when employees say they feel supported by their manager.
Purpose and meaning
Gartner states that whilst up to 82% of employees say it’s important for their organization to see them as a person, not just an employee, only 45% of employees believe their organization sees them this way.
The cultural shift that has taken place since 2020 has seen an acceleration in employees looking to align their work with their sense of purpose and values. Being employed isn’t just about having a job; it’s a part of a person’s value system.
Our research shows that where employees feel connected to their organization’s vision and have a clear understanding of how their role and work are contributing towards the overall mission, they’re more likely to speak up, engage and further fuel the culture.
8 effective employee engagement strategies
A successful employee engagement strategy is one that’s been built around the needs of the organization in question. However, these are just some things you can consider.
1. Incorporate employee feedback into the development of the strategy
Critically, an employee engagement strategy needs to involve the employees. Where workforces are more disparate than ever, both physically (in-person, hybrid, and remote) and geographically across multiple regions, a blended approach to feedback is key.
Using both in-person tactics, such as town halls, and digital methods, such as online surveys, ensures all employees have an opportunity to express their thoughts. This can, in turn, influence your employee engagement strategy. It can also provide an effective way to quickly identify and quantify opportunities and gaps in your approaches.
An employee engagement committee provides an opportunity to get “boots on the ground” and ensure there’s a constant flow of communication between the front line and those in leadership positions.
2. Recognize and celebrate achievements
A recognition-rich culture that celebrates the moments that matter throughout the employee lifecycle has a huge impact on employee morale, productivity, performance, customer satisfaction, and employee retention.
Recognition programs can take many forms, but best-in-class employee recognition programs include a blend of reward and non-reward-based peer-to-peer recognition, manager recognition, long-service awards, and milestone celebrations, as well as ensuring employees are recognized regularly for their contributions and achievements.
3. Create a culture of feedback
Not only does feedback provide opportunities for organizations to act on disengagement, but it can also be used to continue improving existing employee engagement strategies.
Whilst you may have engaged employees when developing strategies, sustaining an effective program isn’t possible without developing a culture of feedback.
It’s essential to ensure employees feel safe and free to express their opinions. Providing avenues for anonymous feedback, such as pulse surveys or utilizing an external partner, can be good options.
77% of employees want employers to ask them for feedback more regularly than once a year.
4. Be transparent with your ideas
Research by Slack shows that over 80% of workers want a better understanding of how decisions are made, and 87% of job seekers say they look for transparency in a future workplace.
To improve these results, organizations must focus on more effective and transparent communication strategies to attract, engage, and retain employees.
Too often, leadership may seek to limit or restrict communication as a way of protecting employees, but this approach can lead to speculation and misinterpretation of the facts.
Frequent and transparent communication increases engagement by building trust, improving understanding and sense of value, and belonging in an organization.
5. Hold employee engagement activities
Businesses have increasingly embraced hybrid working and digitalization. This has led to many employees now only having virtual connections with some or all of their colleagues.
However, connections between employees are essential in the workplace. They help with everything from collaboration and productivity to improving well-being and morale.
In 2018, a Gallup poll found that those who have a best friend at work are:
- Twice as likely to be engaged in their jobs
- Better at engaging customers
- Produce higher-quality work
- Have a greater sense of well-being
- Are less likely to get injured on the job
With the growing awareness of social health in the workplace, employers should provide a calendar of social events that promote connection-building between colleagues.
6. Hire the right people
The importance of having quality people managers within your business cannot be overstated.
Gallup estimates that managers account for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores across business units. Even so, the same research also reveals that only one in 10 people possesses the talent to manage.
With coaching and development plans, another two in ten people exhibit some characteristics of basic managerial talent and can function at a high level.
By investing in training for managers, organizations can help them feel more empowered and have the confidence to support and encourage their teams.
In addition, providing them with supportive tools, such as an award points pot to appreciate individuals or nudge communications to encourage recognition, allows them to keep their team connected, valued, full of purpose, and at their best.
7. Provide incentives
Incentives are a great way to build focus and motivation around specific business challenges, new processes, training needs, and more.
However, it’s important to take into account when designing incentive structures that not all people are motivated in the same way.
To get the best engagement and impact from your incentive program, look to include ways for individuals to personalize the experience. This can be in the communication format, the reward choice or even the goal.
8. Encourage diversity and inclusion
Creating a diverse and inclusive environment can enhance employee engagement, and research shows this connection is statistically significant (Deloitte).
Diverse and inclusive workplaces increase the sense of belonging employees can feel, which, as we’ve outlined earlier in this article, is critical to engagement and employee retention.
To build an inclusive tea,m there are multiple strategies to be taken from affinity groups and employee-led initiatives through to business-led programs such as recruitment practices, employee training and measurement.
Things to consider when developing an employee engagement strategy
Before building an employee engagement strategy, it’s essential to have a well-thought-out plan.
1. Be realistic with your strategies
The phrase ‘eating an elephant in bite-sized chunks’ comes to mind here.
Hopefully, thorough research has provided a good overview of what is and isn’t working in your organization, which should give you a good starting point.
Identify low-performing areas and score these based on scale, resources required and, importantly, employee feedback.
This will uncover priorities and indicate where a positive impact can be made quickly, as well as those that need a more long-term plan.
2. Set clear objectives
Being clear on objectives will ensure that the effectiveness of the employee engagement strategies can be monitored.
Understanding baseline performance in key business metrics such as retention and productivity, and comparing it to industry or sector trends, can help establish targets and track progress.
At a more local level, looking at the performance of any existing programs, for example, engagement in employee recognition programs, can help provide more immediate feedback on strategy effectiveness.
3. Develop a plan
One of the most important aspects of a plan is actionability. Who, when, what, where, and how?
Clearly document what streams of activity are going to be needed to drive your strategies forward. Project owners and contributors also need to be defined, as do processes for decision-making and sign-off.
You should also build a framework for milestones and checkpoint meetings. These are good practices to ensure plans stay on track and necessary amendments can be made throughout the process.
4. Make sure everyone understands the strategy
Hopefully, multi-level stakeholders from around the organization have been included as part of the process of developing employee engagement strategies.
As plans progress from development to implementation, it’s important to circle back with all contributors to ensure buy-in.
From the board to the front-line employees, ensuring everyone understands the purpose and aim of the strategies is essential. They also need to know how they can contribute to the success of the plan. This helps to build a sense of belonging and demonstrates the unique value that everyone can bring.
5. Ensure long-term commitment to sustain success
For an employee engagement strategy to become part of company culture, it must be approached with the same level of focus as any other integral business function.
This means a long-term commitment in the form of resources to ensure the effort can be sustained over time. An effective way of achieving this is by aligning engagement with business results.
Not only does this help to demonstrate the value from a resources perspective, but it also helps to prove the authenticity of the plan’s objectives to the wider business.
For example, are key business measures such as retention or productivity increasing over time in line with your strategies?
Finally, regular two-way communication opportunities with employees through forums, roundtable discussions, surveys, and town halls ensure strategies continue to meet objectives and evolve effectively alongside the changing business and employee needs.
To conclude, focusing on employee engagement in your organization is an effective way to improve employee retention, drive productivity, and increase employee and customer satisfaction.