9 Creative Ways To Engage Employees To Achieve Greater Results For Your Business

by Startacus Admin

Having your employees engaged in your business really matters - here are a few creative ways to increase engagement that should certainly help...

According to Willis Towers Watson, a leading global advisory, broking and solutions organization, employee engagement can be described as "employees' willingness and ability to contribute to company success". In essence, it can be defined as the emotional commitment of an employee towards an organization. But why does employee engagement matter so much for the organizations - big or small? 

When your employees are engaged, they are so emotionally invested in your company that they do everything in their power to help the company succeed. Some of the most prominent benefits of employee engagement include increase in profit margins, enhanced retention rates, boost in workplace happiness, increased levels of productivity, innovation, connected employees, and much more. 

Top 9 Ways To Creatively Engage Your Employees For Best Business Outcomes

As per a Gallup research study, “Only 15% of the U.S. workforce is actively engaged.”

Agree! That’s a sad number. 

Some of the critical questions to be considered here are:

1. Do your employees know what is expected of them at work?

2. Do they have the right tools to perform their daily jobs?

3. Do they feel motivated enough to show at work everyday?

4. Do they get acknowledged or appreciated for the work they do?

5. Do they get sufficient opportunities within the organization to learn and grow?

While figuring out the answers to these questions, you may also want to find ways to engage your employees. It’s a fact that if you invest in your employees, they will in turn be invested in the success of the organization. 

Here are some of the creative ways to engage employees.  

1. Create an unforgettable onboarding experience 

When any employee joins a new organization they start forming a perception of the company right from the first day. And it is not just the responsibility of the HR, but also of the immediate supervisor to make sure the employee feels comfortable and engaged during their induction program. Here are a ways how you can do it:

1. Assign a buddy

2. Introduce the employee to other team mates 

3. Provide access to the important resources for them to get started

4. Communicate your expectations clearly 

5. Make way for them to share their thoughts and feedback 

One of the creative ways of making your employees feel engaged is to gamify the onboarding experience. Gamification makes things interesting and fun and also inculcates an encouraging and competitive spirit. 

2. Provide a culture coach to new joiners

A positive company culture improves employee productivity by 12%. An introduction to the organization’s culture at the time of onboarding helps the new employees gain a sense of direction especially when they have to start contributing individually. Providing a culture coach is a great way of making the members feel comfortable within and outside their immediate work environment. Assign a buddy from another team or department with whom the team members can interact and ask questions that they are otherwise not comfortable to ask their managers. This encourages cross-communication among different teams and boosts the overall company culture.  

3. Host interest clubs or committees

Employees across departments may share common interests and passions. Empower them to get together and share their interests. You can form a fun club or culture  committee and have some members take charge of the activities. The ultimate idea is for the members to get together and share their values and culture which will in turn create a positive environment at work. Few examples could be Book clubs, Sports Committee, Annual Meet Club, Toastmasters, Leanin, etc. 

4. Develop the Emotional Intelligence of your employees

It has been noted that people with high emotional intelligence levels are not only able to perform well at work but are able to develop strong relationships that last for a long time. 

Emotional Quotient (EQ) can be broken down into the following areas:

• Self-awareness 

• Social awareness 

• Self-management 

• Relationship management

While all of these help in building strong bonds, relationship management is crucial to building lasting relationships that lead to a sense of belonging at work.  

5. Have a Scavenger Hunt 

Another creative and inexpensive way of engaging your employees could be by playing a Scavenger Hunt during the onboarding program. It is a great way for employees to understand the company culture and build a network. The main goal of a Scavenger hunt is get people up and moving around. 

Here are a few ideas that you can try:

1. Photos - Take a photo of a landmark or a specific pose and get your team to think creatively around it. 

2. Videos - You can use your smartphone to record a number of activities in the Scavenger hunt. This will encourage your employees to get out of their comfort zones and capture some fun and interesting moments. 

3. QR codes - You can hide some of the objects and make your employees search for them using QR codes. For example, I have been sitting here for the last 6 months, consumed not more than one glass of water every alternate day, and have grown a lot. The answer is an Areca palm plant. 

6. Conduct a strengths assessment 

In an office environment, we often talk about work and our growth areas. But one of the ways of engaging your employees is to find their strengths and provide them with opportunities to grow in their area of interest. Conducting a strengths assessment is a great way of understanding who they are and what they excel at. This will help them maximize their potential and in turn help you achieve your business goals. 

7. Conduct fun-filled retrospectives

Another fun way of engaging with your employees and identifying how to improve teamwork is by conducting retrospective meetings. These meetings specifically focus on what worked well, what didn’t work and why. This is a time where you team gets to reflect upon the past and identify opportunities where they can improve in future. There are several tools you can use to conduct a retro. Check out Mural - a digital workspace for visual collaboration. This platform offers a host of templates that you can use in a variety of ways - retrospectives, brainstorming sessions, empathy mapping, and more. 

8. Incentivize goals 

Foster a healthy competitive spirit among your team members. Make sure to reward them with varied incentives if they have met or exceeded expectations. It could be anything from a dinner for two, a movie ticket, gift cards, and so on. According to several studies, organizations that have a robust incentive program experienced a whopping 79% success rate in achieving their established goals. 

It’s not always monetary rewards, social recognition plays a huge role in boosting the morale of employees. According to Amy Whillans, a Harvard Business School researcher, “cash matters in people’s lives, but it’s not all that matters.” 

Another McKinsey survey concluded that organizations can achieve “55% more improvement in engagement by offering social recognition”.

9. Implement a health and well program 

According to the American Institute of Stress, 83% of US workers suffer from work-related stress. And believe it not, US businesses lose up to $300 billion yearly as a result of workplace stress.

Experts have concluded that implementing health and wellness programs at work ensure a boost in productivity and employee engagement levels. Some examples could be offering an annual fitness club membership, yoga classes, nutritional advice, transit options, flu shots, and much more. Last year during the Covid pandemic, the retail giant Walmart offered a reimbursement option to its associates for purchasing ergonomic work-from-home furniture. A quick search online will provide you with plenty of wellness program options. 

Another idea would be to get a stand-up comedian to perform during one of the lunch hours to provide some comic relief amidst a stressful workday. 

10. Make space for the team to socialize 

Create a separate area where you team members can take a quick break and socialize with each other. It could be a coffee station, basketball hoop, pool table, and anything else. Now in this virtual scenario, you can have a virtual coffee station or snack bar to stop and talk to each other. As a supervisor, you can invite your team members for a virtual lunch or a quick ‘ask me anything’ session to have some fun discussions outside work. 

Concluding thoughts 

Employee engagement is a multifaceted subject. And the influences on varied levels of engagement makes it difficult to understand from where we start. But one thing is for sure, if you do not start anywhere, you’ll definitely reach nowhere. 

The best option is not to get paralyzed by all the tips and recommendations out there, rather start and then figure out along the way what works best for you and your employees. You will only be able to observe and derive the benefits as you initiate the journey and move forward. 

By trying to incorporate the 10 ideas mentioned above, we are sure you will have a happier and engaged workforce at the end of the day. 

 

 

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Published on: 29th April 2021