Increasing Employee Engagement Within Your Team

Engaged teams are more productive and motivated than less engaged ones, and they tend to be more likely to stay with the company. It will take time to reach your management team’s goal to increase employee engagement. Here are some ways you can get started.

1. Tell Your Employees How Their Work Benefits the Company

Many people feel that they are just working to get their paychecks. People often feel drained when they don’t believe their work has a greater purpose. You can encourage your team members to meet individually if they feel this way.

Every interaction that a potential or current customer has with a company can influence their opinion of it. You can meet with employees to discuss their roles and how they will benefit the company, its clients, or any other goal.

People will feel more engaged if they have a better understanding of what and why their work matters. It is possible to show people how your company does great things. This could be by donating part or all of the proceeds to charity.

2. Coordinate Volunteer Opportunities

Employees love to spend time with their coworkers while helping others. Many studies have shown that volunteering can increase productivity, morale, and engagement in workers. These are just a few of the many reasons you might decide to offer volunteer opportunities for workers.

Before you dive into the task, however, make sure to get in touch with your employees and find out what types of giving back interests them most. Workplace volunteering programs often highlight management‘s priorities which may not be what workers consider most important.

You should also remember that there are several ways you can give back. A person may have other obligations that prevent them from volunteering a few hours on Saturday to provide lunch for homeless shelter residents. The worker might decide to organise a fundraiser event or donate their personal time to the shelter.

Volunteering can help you and your team build a stronger relationship. People can quickly share their experiences and create deeper connections. This is especially important for employees from different departments of an organisation who might not normally interact with one another.

3. Make Time to Make Connections With Your Workers

Engaging your employees in a simple way is one of the best ways to do it. Make a conscious effort to get to know your employees. Managers often begin to identify workers based on the characteristics they display in the office. This could mean that you may know someone is punctual and willing to work late on projects, but not know if they have a partner or a pet.

There are many fun and easy ways to learn more about your employees and encourage them to be open to learning from you.

It is also a good idea to ask one icebreaker question before every team meeting. These engaging questions, whether it’s about imagining the perfect dinner date with a celebrity or what people would do if they had a million dollars can be eye-opening.

Open-door policies are another way to build trust and show your employees that you are available when they need it. People will avoid setting up time to talk about things if it is too difficult.

4. Ask Your Employees for Their Feedback

Many people have experienced workplace situations where they wanted to express an opinion but felt it would not matter if they did. This belief can have a negative impact on employee engagement.

Consider how you can show workers that you value their opinions. You should show them that your input is important and will listen to their ideas. Keep in mind that employees at lower levels often have very different opinions than managers. This reality can help you make the company stronger, both in the short- and long-term.

It is best to have at most three engagements with employees about any feedback you are seeking. The first meeting is to review the survey/feedback results and to discuss the plans for the organisation. Once your company has implemented at least one of the plans, you can meet with them again.

Use the last meeting as a reminder of what the organisation did in order to make necessary changes, and to assess their performance. It’s okay if your evaluation shows that you are not making the particular progress you want. It doesn’t matter what your evaluation says, the most important thing to remember is that efforts are being made to achieve the desired outcomes.

Employees are entitled to voice their opinion and request that things be changed. However, you should not promise anything except that you will take their viewpoint into consideration when making decisions. Even if you are passionate about a particular issue, there are many things that are beyond your control and those of the company.

5. Remote Team Members Can Participate

Maybe your company has increased it’s focus on remote work in response to COVID-19. Or, perhaps you have always had significant numbers of remote workers. Any employee engagement efforts will be maximumly effective if remote workers are included.

Remote workers need constant and clear communication. They will be more productive if they understand what other expect of them. Keep the conversation going, whether that’s by scheduling regular zoom calls with remote workers, or letting them know they can reach you at any time of the day with an instant messaging app.

Find ways to encourage remote employees to participate in workplace activities. If your office hosts a contest for Christmas sweaters, allow people to submit photos from anywhere they are. If you invite someone to lead a self-care workshop in your office, stream it so all employees can access it no matter where they are located.

Are you wanting to expand your team and hire new people, for more information take a look at this blog: What Are the Key Tips to Hiring a Team?

6. Recognise Great Work and Suggest Areas for Growth

You’ll find that employees will respond to your feedback in the same way as you can get feedback from them. It is a great idea to highlight outstanding achievements during one-on-1 meetings.

People fear being called to the their manager’s office. They tend to anticipate unpleasant experiences. It is possible to dispel this belief by setting up meetings specifically to say “Well done!” or Keep up the good work!

There will be occasions when you need to coach employees about how to improve their work performance. Try to keep the conversation positive and encouraging, even in these instances.

Stress that while the employee may be doing many things well, everyone still has room for improvement. Next, give clear and constructive direction on how to improve. Provide them with certain metrics that help them track their progress and any other benchmarks that can help them get there.

Employees who feel unsatisfied with their performance can feel discouraged and unsure about their career prospects. However, continuous feedback can be a great way to address these issues and promote better engagement.

Engagement Improvement Is a Process

It is understandable that you want to improve employee engagement in your company/organisation. It won’t happen overnight. It’s a journey without a destination. Engaged employees can do small or large-scale tasks every day. You will begin to notice the effects of these things. These tips will inspire you to think about the next steps.

Take a look at our most recent blog: Positive and Negative Budgeting Tips to Look Out for in 2023

ActionCOACH can help you develop and grow your business through a wide variety of services, from business coaching and mentoring to sales training and marketing assistance. No matter what stage your business is in, our team of experienced coaches can help you take it to the next level.

If you’re serious about strengthening employee engagement within your team, ActionCOACH is the perfect partner to help you get there.

Book a Free Session