Has your leadership team expressed concern about employee performance? You may need to implement a new employee engagement strategy.
Research has proven that employee engagement is linked to the organization’s productivity and ultimately, profitability. This research highlighted yet another benefit – higher employee retention.
Businesses with the least engaged teams have up to 43% higher employee turnover than those with highly engaged teams. This is what has so many businesses interested in engaging their employees. But everything in the business world relies on having the right strategy. Are you confident about yours?
This guide to the top employee engagement strategies for your organization is what you need. It explains why employee engagement is so important, and offers nine proven, effective strategies that you can start implementing today. It will also tell you how an alumni enterprise network, such as Aluminati, is the key to boosting engagement.
What is employee engagement?
Employee engagement describes the employee’s experience in your company. An engaged employee is enthusiastic about their workplace and dedicated to their role in it. They are satisfied with their job and feel important to the organization.
Implementing the right employee engagement strategies will increase job satisfaction, resulting in your employees fulfilling their roles with greater care and dedication.
Why is an employee engagement strategy important?
Companies with the most engaged employees are 21% more profitable, and the most engaged workers are also 87% less likely to resign.
Companies tend to focus on customer engagement and customer satisfaction but forget that engagement and satisfaction begin with the employees. Increased employee satisfaction also boosts customer loyalty because engaged workers provide better customer service.
Engage employees, and they work better, both individually, and with their colleagues. They offer better customer service and represent the company more favorably.
9 best employee engagement strategies
These are the nine most effective employee engagement strategies.
1. Company culture
Your company culture is the set of values, goals, and practices that your company upholds. It ties in with your organization’s mission and plays a big role in employee engagement.
If your workforce shares and appreciates your company’s core values, they will feel more engaged with the company and its culture. There are various ways to exhibit and enhance the company culture when using Aluminati’s online engagement tools.
Share company news on the events board and create interest-related groups and connection networks where coworkers can engage with one another over commonalities.
2. Recognition and appreciation
Do you recognize and reward your workers’ achievements? This is the best way to increase employee engagement. Establish an employee recognition and reward program, and encourage employees on the community platform to participate in peer-to-peer recognition.
This strengthens the emotional connection between employee and employer, as well as employee to coworker.
It is less about the rewards and more about the positive emotional connection formed when one’s efforts are recognized. By involving employees in peer-to-peer recognition, you also foster a community of appreciation, one where all employees feel valued.
3. Professional development opportunities
Another excellent way to improve employee engagement is by offering career development opportunities. This will empower employees to achieve their professional goals, and they will use their newfound skills to the company’s benefit.
Aluminate for Enterprise makes it easy to share career development courses and materials with your employees. Our user-friendly digital library offers a centralized repository for resources that your entire team can access whenever they need them.
4. Regular feedback mechanisms
A simple step to improving employee engagement is to encourage employee feedback through surveys. An employee engagement survey gives you employee feedback about your current employee engagement levels, and how to increase them.
An employee engagement survey should ask your employees questions about their work experience and what they feel is lacking. They provide employees with an opportunity to be heard, which itself is an effective employee engagement strategy.
To keep employee feedback more relaxed and informal, consider our interactive chat features. This may help to coax more timid employees to open up about their experience with the company.
One-on-one interviews are sometimes better at gauging more insightful feedback. A mix of surveys with interviews will provide the best pool of engagement data.
5. Flexible work arrangements
An engagement strategy that has been very popular in recent years is remote work.
An enterprise network and management system like Aluminati is perfect for remote work as your team can stay connected wherever they are. If you cannot go fully remote, consider a hybrid of remote and in-office work, with more flexible work hours.
Regardless of their emotional commitment to their workplace, everyone’s commitment to their home life and family is stronger. That means they need a healthy work-life balance, to honor both commitments. Where remote work is not possible, offer an extra day off or shorter hours once a month.
6. Wellness programs
If you want to increase employee engagement, encourage your team to lead healthier lives through employee wellness programs for better mental health, physical health, or both.
Allow your employees to decide what works best for their needs by giving them a choice between a few different wellness programs. It can be as simple as providing tutorials on better health practices on your enterprise social network. You could also offer rewards for participation.
7. Team-building activities
Get employees actively engaged through team-building activities. Team building can engage new employees, and improve employee engagement in long-term employees.
A fun team-building activity can boost employee morale, encourage teamwork, and build various skills. These activities may be in-person, but by allowing virtual activities, you include remote employees, too.
8. Streamlined onboarding
It’s easier to have an engaged workforce with a streamlined onboarding process. Every human resources team knows that a successful onboarding experience makes all the difference to employee engagement.
Facilitate easier onboarding, and employees can feel connected and engaged from day one. However, streamlined onboarding is only a successful employee engagement strategy if it remains professional yet creates a positive impression.
Streamlined does not mean rushed, here. It means simplifying the experience with a platform like Aluminate for Enterprise. New employees can create their own profiles and access onboarding resources from the dashboard and digital library.
When all crucial information is easily accessible to them from a centralized platform, new hires will adjust quickly to their new work roles and will view the entire experience in a positive light.
9. Mentorship programs
Successful employee engagement strategies often involve programs where senior leaders mentor junior employees. Our research has shown that mentoring programs can increase employability by up to 300%. You just need the right mentoring platform, like the Aluminate Community Builder.
These senior leaders need not currently be in your employ. Corporate alumni play a big role in this employee engagement strategy.
Aluminate for Enterprise offers virtual mentorship programs, where mentors and mentees are paired up automatically based on their roles, skills, and experience.
Stay in contact with your departing employees. A corporate alumni association can improve employee engagement and keep alumni engaged, too. If your key performance indicators show that employee performance is not what it should be, it may be time to reach out to those alumni.
Their support may be just what you need to ensure more efficient, productive, and motivated employees.
Put these strategies to work with Aluminate for Enterprise
Is your leadership team concerned about lower employee productivity or higher employee turnover? If so, it is time to put the above employee engagement strategies to work. The right employee engagement strategy ensures an engaged workforce that’s excited about working for you, and happy to remain.
If you are serious about raising employee engagement levels, get the right platform for your employee engagement plan: Aluminate for Enterprise.
This tried-and-trusted platform is used by leading organizations worldwide to create corporate alumni databases, enterprise social networks, and more – all in one place. Do the same for your organization. Request a free demo today.
