Employee engagement is a mindset. To make sure it yields results, you must know the ‘why’ of conducting these activities while you even plan for them. As a Human resources manager, keeping your employees engaged is perhaps one of the single biggest challenges you ever faced.
It is a known fact that organizations involved in regular employee engagement activities or practices produce more efficient and effective staff.
There is conclusive evidence that when you improve employee engagement, it can significantly improve your organisational performance across many areas including the productivity, profitability, customer satisfaction, well being, health & safety as well as much more.
Employee engagement is creating conditions or adapting different workplace methods to motivate employees of the organization to achieve their goals set by the organization in lieu with the organization’s culture to help achieve their highest potential.
A lack of employee engagement initiatives comes with several other issues including falling productivity, as well as a general air of discomfort in the office. If this is allowed to progress, it could be too late to fix things leading to a “snowballing effect”.
To make sure your employees are actively engaged, let’s start with 50 innovative ideas & activities which you can implement in your organization straightaway.
Introduce and encourage a healthy and happy lifestyle
Due to high stress levels it is difficult for employees to take care of themselves. You can help them by starting off with small things such as stacking your companies’ refrigerators and cabinets with healthy snacks. On a broader level, you can help them with providing a gym membership, yoga classes, and massage appointments to decline their stress levels.
Have team pictures
Have team pictures clicked and frame it in a designated place in your office. It could be pictures of festival celebrations, office parties, office lunches, dinners. The more candid the photos the better.
Celebrate your employee’s personal achievements/celebrations
Find a reason to celebrate your employee’s personal achievements. It could be birthdays, anniversaries, promotions, farewell, baby showers etc. This is a great way of showing that the organization really cares for them.
Rewarding employees
Rewarding employees doesn’t always mean monetary terms such as raise or promotions. It could also be as basic as thanking and appreciating them in front of other employees, giving gift vouchers, a word of encouragement. This increases employee engagement.
Offer flexible work timings if possible
If the organization culture permits, and if the nature of the work is not time bound, employees should be given the option of flexible work timings or work from home option. This can help in controlling employee attrition and increasing productivity.
Employee of the month Award
Conduct a small award ceremony every month where the best employee is facilitated and appreciated for all the hard work.
Family/Pet day
Have a family or pet day once a quarter where employees can get their families and pets in the office.
Office Breakfast/Lunch
Organize office breakfast or lunch sessions at least once a month, which would be an excellent employee engagement idea.
Help employees in their career
Assist your employees to move forward in their career goals, it could be in terms of mentoring them, helping them with education/professional workshops, certifications etc.
Encourage and identify innovation
It is very important to encourage innovation in your organization after you have identified it. Have projects in which employees of different departments are involved and there is a possibility of incredible ideas to implement for the business.
Support your employees in personal situations
You should support your employees, especially the ones going through bad times. It could be personal/work situations, medical issues, loss of a relative, painful divorces etc.
Offsite/office picnics
Plan quarterly office picnics, off sites, outdoor activities to rejuvenate your employees and to break the daily office routine monotony.
Give surprise weekly offs to your employees
Nothing will be more rewarding for an employee to receive a surprise weekly off at least once a year may be on their birthday.
Introduce charity
You can help your employees in participating in some kind of community services, donating money, attending orphanages or old age homes which will make them feel like a better person and help them not only professionally but also personally.
Game room
Introduce a game room in your organization where employees can take small breaks and play games such as billiards, table tennis, chess which may act as a stress buster for your employees.
Organise Talent hunts
Organize talent hunts or shows such as singing, dancing, cooking, poetry, painting, playing some kind of musical instruments, hobby classes. Conducting such talent shows increase employee engagement and increase synergy within the organization.
Sports competitions
Introduce sports competitions such as inter department football games, cricket matches. This is an excellent team building exercise as well as a good form of physical and mental exercise.
Welcome ceremony for new recruits
Give new recruits a welcome party where they feel greeted which will increase their faith in the organization and keep them engaged in the future.
Create an effective leadership program
Introduce a leadership program where you can nurture future potential leaders in your organization. Identifying your high potentials is a critical step that you need to have in place to ensure that you groom your future leaders effectively. The right assessments can help you identify this set of leaders for your organisation.
Include your staff in business planning
You should ensure that your employees are included in the business planning. They should be aware of the business plans, profit sharing ideas which will keep them engaged.
Celebrate employees work anniversary
Celebrate your employees work anniversary by giving them a small gift after they complete a year within the organization. This is a very effective employee engagement activity.
Bring in an Inspirational personality
It may sound like a bizarre idea but it can actually work. Try to bring in a motivational personality/speaker to inspire and motivate your staff. The person could be someone from the same industry to increase employee engagement.
Organize annual parties
Make it a point to organize at least one annual party in your organization. It can be either Christmas, Diwali or Halloween party. The party should include the employee’s families as well.
Create a buzz about upcoming opportunities
Make sure to create a buzz amongst the organization about upcoming opportunities. This can be done through emails, newsletters, during meetings etc.
Create your internal newsletter
It will be a great idea to make your internal newsletter and share it monthly or quarterly with the employees of the organization. It should be innovative and include the names of the employees sharing their success stories.
Set goals for your employees
Every organization should set clear goals for all the employees so that they have complete lucidity on what is expected from them. The right goals set can help the individual to do their best in what they do with complete commitment and produce extraordinary results.
Lend a helping hand
Not all employees will be vocal about sharing their problems with the management. You should listen to their problems and try resolve them genuinely.
Give ample opportunities to employees to voice their opinions
Every employee should be permitted to voice their opinions, irrespective of the position of the employee in the organization. That will increase their self-confidence and thereby increase employee engagement.
Consider feedback from your employees
Consider feedback from your current or past employee very seriously and try to work on the suggestions. Nothing will make an employee more valued after their inputs are being implemented in the organization.
Welcome employees in style
Welcome your new employees in style. It could be gifting witty or creative presents like personalized t-shirts, coffee mugs, bags, etc.
Renovate the work place
Try and renovate the work places while making it more creative, bright and which creates a positive environment. Dull and shabby workplaces create a depressive environment.
Introduce inter-department trainings
Inter department trainings can actually broaden your employee’s horizons and also help in breaking from the daily work routine and will also help employees from different departments know each other.
Internal promotions
Introduce internal promotions as a part of your company culture. Promoting internal employees will help the promoted employee retain in the organization as well as encourage and motivate other employees to work harder to achieve future promotions.
Be transparent
Be transparent with your employees in terms of what is expected from them and also the company’s vision and mission. It also encourages the employees to provide suggestions and ideas to the management.
Have periodic group meetings
Group meetings make people feel that their needs are being heard and respected. It is a place where all the employees get an opportunity to speak their mind.
Welcome diversity
Diversity is extremely important in every organization. People from different cultures have something different to bring to the table and which can improve employee engagement.
Create an internal social networking site for the employees
Build an internal social social networking site for the employees. This is beneficial for organizations having offices at multiple locations. It helps bridge a gap between the top management and the employees at junior positions.
Conduct surveys
You can conduct quarterly surveys on job satisfaction. Surveys allow your employees to give honest feedback to the management team.
Encourage employees to take vacations
It is a known fact that vacations help employees feel revitalized and increases productivity. It also reduces stress levels and upturns employee engagement.
Have team meetings by different employees
Give a chance to different employees to conduct team meetings every time you have one. Sharing responsibilities encourages employee empowerment and help increase their confidence and engagement.
Buddy training
For employee engagement activity, have your top performers train new recruits. New recruits can be comfortable in asking questions, which they might otherwise hesitate to ask the managers directly.
Encourage brainstorming sessions
It is essential to keep the creative juices flowing within the organisation.The sessions should be kept with an open mind and no discussion to be termed wrong and without criticisms. If the employees are allowed to speak their mind it benefits both the employee in increasing engagement as well as the organization.
Try to give your employees higher salaries as compared to your competitors
This may be difficult depending the size of your organization. Nothing inspires employees more in terms of employee engagement if they receive higher salaries.
Help employees know each other
Team lunches, dinners, happy hours, joint assignments, and having professional blogs are great ways to connect people with each other who share common interests.
Implement work-life balance
Implement work life balance by encouraging employees not to answer office emails or calls unless important. But at the same time give their hundred percent focus on the work at hand during office times and create a clear boundary between home and work.
Have employees write on your company website
An article written by an employee on the company website would increase visibility of both the employee and escalate the goodwill of the company. As it is likely that the employee will share his article amongst his/her personal networks and this is one of the most effective employee engagement tool.
Involve your current employee in hiring new talent
Nothing is more satisfying for an employee to involve him or her in hiring new talent. It makes the employee feel that he is also contributing in getting new talent as well as feeling engaged.
Celebrate your own organization’s day
Celebrate the date of inception of the organization and organize a party for your employees. It serves as a great platform for employees to socialize with each other and also take a break from their otherwise hectic schedules.
Have casual Fridays or Saturdays at work
This is an excellent idea to keep the workforce engaged. As employees work best when they are the most comfortable and given the freedom of what they can wear at work.
Start a meeting with appreciating a new employee every time
Start your daily/weekly meetings with appreciating a new employee every time for the efforts or their accomplishments at work. This is a splendid employee engagement activity. In this way every employee feels respected and it helps to improve the productivity at work.
You can implement some of these unique ideas to create a more efficient, effective, creative and motivated staff and also drastically reduce employee turnover. As it is known that there is a direct correlation between higher engagement and higher performance of an employee in the organization.
If you have any more ideas on how to revamp the employee engagement strategies in your organisation, please share them with us in the comments section below.
