The employee engagement strategy is a highly effective business one, but it is much easier said than done. It is one thing to get your new-hired employees on board. However, what are efficient employee engagement strategies?
If you’re wondering how to inspire staff members, let’s look into these eight effective employee engagement strategies.
- What is employee engagement?
- What is an employee engagement strategy?
- 8 Employee Engagement Strategies to Consider in 2022
- #1: Acknowledge individual learning styles and preferences
- #2: Use effective group learning techniques
- #3: Share best practices and ideas among teams
- #4: Allow employees to speak up
- #5: Think “Bottom-Up,” not “Top-Down”
- #6: Provide Opportunities for Learning and Continuing Education
- #7: Make Your Place of Work Transparent
- #8: Prioritize employee well-being
- Final words
What is employee engagement?
Employee engagement refers to an employee’s emotional commitment to the organization and its goals.
This emotional commitment indicates that engaged employees genuinely care about their work and organization. They do not work solely for financial gain but the benefit of the organization’s goals, resulting in increased company success.
What is an employee engagement strategy?
An employee engagement strategy is a plan outlining how your company will keep its employees engaged. Your company’s size and spending plan will determine what actions you take. Choosing two or three of the most urgent elements is an excellent way to start.
Your employee engagement strategy should include the following elements:
- What metrics will you use to measure engagement: through employee engagement surveys or turnover rate, absenteeism, productivity, etc
- Objectives for improving the above metrics
- Your budget for initiatives related to engagement
8 Employee Engagement Strategies to Consider in 2022
#1: Acknowledge individual learning styles and preferences
Before designing a training program, getting to know various learning styles is an essential employee engagement strategy. Learning styles always have an impact on learners’ outcomes. For example, learners who prefer to work in groups will learn better with the collaborative learning style.
If you fully understand whether your staff prefers to work independently or in groups – you will learn how well they work and are more likely to engage with projects.
You should also consider when and how long someone can learn. You will find that some employees prefer individual training while others prefer collaborative learning. Your employee training program should provide a variety of ways for users to interact with their courses.
#2: Use effective group learning techniques
Incorporating group learning into your training program is a highly effective employee engagement strategy.
The benefit of group learning is that it lets the whole team be involved in all training activities. Encourage your employees to step outside of their comfort zone, for example, by assigning a quieter employee to lead a subteam.
It’s also a good idea to form small groups and have them focus on a specific task.
Smaller groups are often relatively fast-paced and can cover a vast scope in a short amount of time. Each member believes that their voice is heard and that their colleagues are rooting for them throughout the process. Finally, all groups can come together to discuss the outcome.
#3: Share best practices and ideas among teams
One of the most efficient employee engagement strategies is to create an environment where your staff can share best practices and ideas with other colleagues.
Nothing beats having your work practices praised, so make sure your employees have the opportunity to display their best work. Peer-to-peer learning, whether in meetings or through your training program, is an excellent way to increase employee engagement and strengthen relationships among your employees.
According to Ankita Singh of Capterra, interdepartmental meetings help boost collaboration among departments while eliminating communication inefficiencies. These meetings are also an opportunity for teams to discuss goals and achievements and provide public recognition.
#4: Allow employees to speak up
You can’t launch an employee engagement strategy successfully without having your employees’ feedback during the process.
People are more likely to speak up if they believe they have a say in what happens in the company. So, if you want your staff to care more about their jobs, ask for feedback on improving the overall performance.
A once-a-year satisfaction survey isn’t sufficient to assess your company’s performance. You should also create channels for each employee to gradually raise concerns and provide feedback. Consider using discussion forums where your teams can voice their concerns and receive feedback from their peers and managers.
#5: Think “Bottom-Up,” not “Top-Down”
Surveys and questionnaires are critical when measuring your employees’ feelings and opinions. However, in many cases, these surveys are ill-conceived.
Often, these surveys are structured to generate a result that will satisfy the executive board. However, these surveys do nothing to allow staff to comment on the actual issues. They’re also an example of top-down thinking, focusing on some cases rather than considering the whole picture.
Developing an employee engagement strategy will be hard if you just focus on top-down thinking.
Instead, if you’ve given it some thought, you’ll realize that your survey is only a starting point for engagement. Hold a team meeting to go over the results when you have the results. Concentrate on common issues and ask your team how to improve matters.
The more you ask your team for their thoughts, the more empowered and trusted they will feel – and the more engaged they will be.
If you wonder what types of questions to include in your surveys, check out the below video for more details
#6: Provide Opportunities for Learning and Continuing Education
Offering learning opportunities during work is another employee engagement strategy that works. Without a good training strategy, your company’s workforce can become disengaged and unproductive.
As of the most recent Gallup State of the American Workplace report, professional or career growth and development opportunities offered by a job are crucial to 87% of staff members. These opportunities are among the top reasons employees get more engaged with the company.
“Continuous education is an important part of company culture,” said Paul French, Managing Director at Intrinsic Search. “Education compensation for company-approved training and courses is one way we inspire and engage our employees.”
“When employees are assisted in acquiring new useful skills, they feel valued and cared for,” Paul continued. Because there are clear paths for professional growth, our employees are immensely more invested in the company.”
#7: Make Your Place of Work Transparent
A highly effective employee engagement strategy brings your employees into the fold as often as possible.
Employees will be more engaged and committed to the company’s vision if the company culture incorporates transparency. According to a 2014 American Psychological Association survey, 25% of staff members do not trust their manager, and half of them believe their manager is not honest with them.
According to WikiJob founder Chris Muktar, your staff members can’t fully engage themselves in something if they don’t know what they’re working on. That is why it is critical to be transparent with your staff, as it will help them engage with the organization.
“Leadership can regard decisions and policies as a starting point for greater transparency—they can be truthful about internal organizational problems,” said Elizabeth Minei, Ph.D., Director & Consultant at EMinei Consulting.
#8: Prioritize employee well-being
Last but not least, prioritizing your employees’ well-being is also among the best employee engagement strategies. Heavy workload and exhaustion are severe problems for many employees, with ever-connected devices, newly crowned home ‘offices,’ and much of social life on hold for the past year. That is not a recipe for engagement.
By offering health and wellness opportunities, you benefit your employees’ well-being and business. Employees feel appreciated as company members because they know their health and happiness are essential.
According to Liam Johnson, CEO of The Hitch Store, “When people feel valued, they are less stressed, engage more, and enjoy what they do.”
Final words
You may have already implemented some of these employee engagement strategies, but it is impossible to use all of them effectively. We recommend selecting a few that you can focus on and believe will have the most significant impact based on your specific circumstances.
Read more:
- The Comprehensive List of 9 Fantastic Employee Engagement Activities
- How To Improve Employee Engagement: 5 Tips To Success
- 3 Creative Virtual Employee Engagement Ideas to Build a Successful Training Program
Sean Bui, the founder and creative director of F.Learning Studio, is a respected leader in the e-learning and multimedia production industry. With over 10 years of experience, he has dedicated his career to helping organizations create engaging and impactful learning experiences.
Under his leadership, F.Learning Studio has grown into a trusted partner for organizations in the education, healthcare, and corporate training sectors, producing over 2,000 minutes of educational animation.
