5 Painless Methods for Better Employee Engagement

How is your company’s employee engagement? You might not think this is such an important question, but the answer could have wide-ranging repercussions for your company. Engaged employees are also, not surprisingly, more productive employees. They are the superstars who come into work eager and ready to give it their all and learn new things in the process.

These are the kind of employees you want in your company. They’re the people you’re looking for when viewing a video resume, setting up a video interview or scheduling an in-person meeting.

Disengaged employees, on the other hand, are the ones finding any way possible to slack off on the job. Since only about one in three employees are the superstars you hope for, this means two-thirds of your workforce could be snoozing their way through the day. Disengaged employees waste their productivity chatting, napping and taking advantage of social media. In fact, social media sites routinely cost employers 2.25 billion dollars in lost productivity every year.

It’s not social media’s fault, though. Your company needs to focus on employee engagement to turn those Facebook-ing productivity drains into superstar employees. Here are just a few ways how:

Volunteer Together
A great way to bring the team together is to focus on doing good. Getting employees to volunteer is a great way to build employee engagement organically. Doing a good thing for someone else will make your employees feel better about themselves and your company. You will not only be doing good in your community, but also you’ll be doing good for your workers’ productivity.

Have your workers get together and decide on a charity or cause they will volunteer their time to assist. As an added bonus, this brainstorming session will help employees get to better know their coworkers and what values and causes they hold dear.

Celebrate the Seasons
Seasons come and seasons go, but did you know they can be great excuses to increase your employee engagement? The seasons provide plenty of easy opportunities for fun outside activities. For instance, with fall right around the corner you can throw a Halloween party or even go apple picking. When winter brings chilly weather, it also brings opportunities for your workers to bond over holiday parties. If you need a quick idea for ways to get people together, look to the seasons for help.

Get Out and Have Fun…Off the Clock
All work and no fun makes your workforce pretty dull. So switch things up a bit and plan for some outings with your workers that have nothing to do with their 9-to-5. You’ll be improving your employee engagement and having fun at the same time.

Make Collaboration a Priority
Collaboration is key to improving your employee engagement and making workers feel like they’re really being heard. All workers want to know their ideas and contributions are making an impact.

Collaboration shouldn’t just take place on special projects or in a pinch. Collaboration can take place as early as the hiring process. This could mean getting the whole team together to talk about hiring goals, or it could mean having everyone leave notes on a video resume or recorded video interview. Company discussion is extremely important at all stages of work life, but particularly important in hiring great candidates who will turn into engaged employees.

Stress Professional Development
All employees want to know your company is a place where workers can develop, learn, and grow. This is why your organization neglects professional development at the peril of employee engagement. Make learning a part of the everyday life of your employees. Set up workshops, bring in speakers, and sign up for webinars. Just make sure your workers know it’s important to you they keep learning and developing their skill sets. They’ll thank you with higher productivity and more innovative ideas.

Employee engagement is important for increasing the productivity of your workforce. A little engagement can go a long way towards improving your company’s collaboration, hiring, and morale. So what do you have to lose?

What are some ways you can improve your company’s employee engagement? Share in the comments!

IMAGE: Courtesy of Flickr by Tim Ellis