Why should you increase employee engagement?
Increasing employee engagement spurs business success. As a result, each year, more companies are investing in improving employee engagement. Gallup’s 2020 analyses on engagement and organisational outcomes reveal one thing. Employee engagement strongly affects performance.
But what is employee engagement? And how can you increase it? In this blog, you will learn what employee engagement is, how you can benefit from it, and what you can do to increase it.
What is Employee Engagement?
Imagine a sports team with disengaged players. Maybe they’re not listening to the coach’s game plan, they’re not bonding with their teammates, and perhaps don’t care about their performance. They will not get far when the competition heats up. In business, non-engaged employees can hold performance back. Engaged employees can win you finals.
Think of employee engagement as a “higher-order job attitude” (Gallup, 2020). There is no one metric for spotting engaged employees. But some signs can help you recognise them. Collaborativeness, self-confidence and emotional attachment are good examples. Engaged employees also don’t mind going the extra mile. They look for opportunities to grow the company and themselves. And they might well exceed expectations. The engaged employee drives themselves and your organisation to success.
Engaged employees drive productivity and performance. They are vital to a company’s success. But what are the costs of non-engaged employees? Let’s dive in👇
The Cost of Non-Engaged Employees
Non-engaged employees cost 18% of their annual salary. This means, that for every £100k paid to non-engaged employees, £18k is wasted. Companies in the bottom quartile for employee engagement are 23% less profitable, 14-18% less productive, and have 43-64% lower employee retention. Disengaged employees are also 66% lower in well-being and 81% higher in absenteeism.
Employee engagement can make a huge difference – and not a negligible one. Unless your company is an exception, only 21% of your employees are fully engaged.
This might come as a surprise, but employee engagement does not always correlate with employee well-being. It is perfectly possible for employees to be happy with their lives whilst disengaged from their company. This is especially true for Europe – 47% of employees thrive in their lives, but only 14% are actively engaged with their jobs.
Raising employee engagement can provide a number of organisational benefits. But how can you do this? The next section provides a few suggestions.
10 ways to increase employee engagement
True employee engagement is not achieved overnight. But there are some general steps you can take to give it a boost.
Here’s how to increase employee engagement.
1. Regular employee check-ins
Book regular check-ins with employees. Find out what they’re enjoying, and what they’re not. Use them not only for performance reviews and target setting but also to chat about an employee’s life. You can gain some rich qualitative insights here that could spark positive change across the organisation.
2. Focus on employee recognition
This is very effective. Value-based recognitions are particularly useful. They award employee behaviour that reflects company values. They boost employee engagement and simultaneously strengthen company culture. A win-win. Consider monthly competitions to recognise top performers and encourage healthy competition. Celebrate the wins with newsletter shoutouts, content on digital displays, and awards.
3. Encourage employee feedback
Opportunities for employees to express their ideas and provide feedback can improve their engagement. Employees who feel their voice is heard are 4.6 times more likely to believe in their capacities. Therefore, setting up anonymous surveys, one-to-one meetings, focus groups, and feedback screens are great ways to provide opportunities for employees to leave their feedback. If their feedback leads to positive changes or success, let them know!
4. Offer and promote wellbeing initiatives
Gallup reveals that 44% of employees stress every day at work. Career Builder reinforces this, highlighting that 31% experience extremely high stress. Well-being initiatives are one way to help alleviate this stress. These include mental health workshops, hybrid work opportunities, therapy sessions, spa days or sports memberships. A less stressed employee is likely to be happier and more engaged. Many organisations have such schemes in place, but employees don’t know about them. Make sure they’re often promoted around digital signage, emails, and newsletters.
5. Encourage peer feedback
A good peer feedback system can be a game-changer. Encourage your workers to share feedback with each other regularly. This will help connect them to your company’s workflow. 89% of HR leaders agree that peer feedback positively impacts their organisation.
6. Effective working relationships
More than efficient task allocation. Working with friends is better than working with near strangers. Try to organize small events such as Friday lunches, fun team kick-offs or sports initiatives. They can make a difference in the office. The key here is team bonding. If employees enjoy who they work with, they are more likely to enjoy their work.
7. Celebrate life events and personal milestones
Make an important life moment a reason to celebrate. A marriage, a marathon, work anniversary, or even successful fundraisers. Make sure to celebrate these well. Celebrating employees’ personal achievements can double the chances of your employees recommending your company.
8. Employ good managers and supervisors
Managers and supervisors who display the above qualities will help employee engagement sore. Check that your managers implement good engagement practices. Where possible, ask them to be empathetic and flexible with their employees. And reward them for doing so if you can. Good managers should be reactive to employees’ needs and make positive changes where appropriate to benefit the employees and the organisation.
9. Instate company values and culture
Clear values can help your employees identify with your company’s vision. When employees have a clear view and direction of what the company wants to be, is, or where it is going, they become more engaged. For example, if sustainability is built into the company ethos employees may be more likely to get involved with sustainability schemes etc.
10. Use the correct channels
When choosing a channel to engage with your employees, there is no “one size fits all”. This is particularly important for non-desk workers. Due to often being in high-risk areas such as factory floors, they are unable to effectively access popular channels such as SMS or intranet. Instead, other solutions are needed to ensure a fluid line of consistent communication. This avoids misinformation and conflict. Have a clear internal communications strategy and ensure it reaches everyone you need it to.
These tips provide a roadmap for reevaluating your engagement strategy. But there is one last aspect to keep in mind. Technology. The right technology can really boost employee engagement. In the last section of this blog, we analyse how you can boost your engagement strategy with digital screens.
7 ways Digital signage can increase employee engagement
Digital signage for employee engagement helps bring business-critical content directly to your employees’ eyes. This section contains 7 ideas to increase employee engagement through digital screens.
1. Employee recognition
Digital screens are a great way to share personal milestones with the whole company. ‘Employee of The Month’, ‘Best Team Member’, and ‘Congratulations to Mark’s Baby!’ is great content to help employees feel valued.
2. Inter-department collaboration
It is easy to lose sight of wider company goals and projects. Digital screens can help you share the combined progress of different departments for better collaboration and a wider sense of community. Share live digital dashboards and help the marketing department quickly see how their campaigns turn into sales.
3. Onboarding
Use digital screens to share news such as new hires. This makes new employees feel welcome and engaged from the very start. It can also help spark new conversations for the new employee around the office. An existing worker might notice the new employee from the screen and introduce themselves. Celebrating new employees can be a catalyst for company culture.
4. Instant communication
This is particularly relevant for non-desk workers. You can use digital screens to share live performance data, safety messages and more. General daily announcements can also be shared instantly. It is vital that all employees are kept in the loop. Doing so helps increase engagement and productivity.
5. Employee feedback
Share the QR code of your employee feedback survey on your screens. Advertise online forms for new ideas. or just remind everyone of HR’s email address. Screens can facilitate your feedback strategy to increase engagement and organisational growth.
6. Employee wellbeing
You could share content about healthy practices in the job place through digital screens. ‘Take a short break every hour’. ‘Drink more water’. You could also advertise special workshops or well-being resources. Share QR codes directly on the screens for instant booking. Screens are a great way to consistently remind employees about what’s on offer to them. They might not need it right away, but keeping these schemes top of mind can provide a great deal of help when the time is right.
7. Company culture
Digital screens are great for reinforcing company culture. Use them to share what your company is doing on important social issues. Celebrate new partnerships and company developments. Ask your employees to support a special cause via a QR code.
Conclusion
Employee engagement plays a crucial role in long-term organisational performance and growth. Increasing employee engagement can boost profit (23%), and productivity (14-18%), and has strong relations to turnover and absenteeism.
This blog analysed good practices for increasing employee engagement. It also showed how these could be optimized through technology.
Want to find out how digital signage could supercharge your employee engagement? Speak to an expert today.
