5 trending employee engagement ideas

Employees have now become the nub of the concern of every organization. There has been a shift from employee engagement to employee experience.

Employee engagement ideas that work are becoming increasingly famous as the job satisfaction turns candidate-driven. In this fast-paced world, retaining employees has become a primary concern for organizations. After all, there are so many distractions out there promising to become ‘the next big thing’.

Retaining employees is directly related to their engagement at the workplace. While many companies are aware of this connection, only a few have been able to come up with engagement strategies that are adequate.

‍

Top 5 employee engagement ideas 2024

‍

1. Identify Internal Influencers
   ‍
2. Become more accessible
   ‍
3. Gather, analyze and act on data
   ‍
4. Publish an employee newsletter
   ‍
5. Encourage employee interaction outside of work and even for remote work
   ‍

Now that we have listed  ways to increase employee engagement, let us take a look at each one of these in more detail.

‍

Engagement hack 1: Identify internal influencers

‍

The question here is,  who is an internal influencer? If you are thinking about the executive-level employees, you have got it wrong. An internal influencer is somebody who is one of the employees with a regular job title and can influence employees with their charisma or with their logical and intellectual conversations. This is a person who people like or love and look up to.

When you identify these influencers, you can get to the real issues that bother employees. Talk to them and realize what is happening inside the company. We don’t mean eavesdropping or gossiping, just get to know them better for the better!

Since an influencer is a regular employee, in most cases, they will be aware of the experience that their colleagues are having.

These influencers can easily be identified by using simple employee engagement survey ideas. Asking employees who they interact with most or whose advice they seek when facing issues at work in the office or work from home can point you towards the influencers in the organization. 

Identifying influencers is crucial if you want to boost employee engagement. Studies have found that the five most influential employees can often reach up to twice the number of employees work that an executive committee can reach.

‍

Engagement hack 2: Become more accessible

‍

What is the one piece of technology that almost every employee will have access to all the time? Laptop? Nope, you wouldn’t carry one when you go on a walk now, would you? Yes, a mobile phone! We all stay connected using smart devices in the digital front. So, how can this be used as an engagement hack you ask? It’s simple really. 

Try and engage with employees using a means of technology that is continuously accessible. Considering the fact that the majority of day to day's workforce is made of millennials, mobile seems like the best way forward to improve employee engagement.

Millennials at work are all set to cross the 75% mark in the workforce globally by 2025. And, 98% of millennials use smartphones, making it a great time to start using a mobile app for employees. If you are already using an employee app, you must know that push notifications work wonders for employee engagement. 75% of messages sent through push notifications are read within an hour of being received.

Optimized communication using mobiles can help develop a collaborative spirit among employees and help everyone contribute to conversations no matter if they are in the office or in the field.

‍

Engagement hack 3: Collect, analyze and act on data

‍

Another employee engagement ideas that work for when you want to improve anything, the first logical step is to start by measuring it. When it comes to organizations, the way to measuring engagements starts with collecting data. This data can be collected from employees by using effective tools like pulse surveys and polls at regular intervals to ensure the data stays relevant. We have already discussed the tips to use while conducting an employee engagement survey.

The data collected from surveys can help understand the effectiveness of your current engagement strategy. This can in-turn help HR come up with hacks to increase engagement and boost the productivity of employees. 

Bonus points if you are using an app to conduct surveys and measure engagement. According to research conducted by Staffbase, one can expect a 35% higher survey response rate while using an app to conduct surveys as compared to any other channel. The HRMS platforms with the latest technology makes it easier to conduct surveys.

‍

Engagement hack 4: Publish an employee newsletter

‍

Employee engagement ideas for which organizations are becoming increasingly global in nature. It becomes important to publish an employee newsletter to share updates and keep everyone on the same page. Clear and constant communication is also an engagement hack in itself. Having an employee-centric approach ensures better implementation.

I understand it might seem redundant to publish internal newsletters when you can just have a meeting and share updates monthly. However, publishing an internal newsletter is far more effective, it gives employees a chance for contribution and recognition by their peers.

‍

Engagement hack 5: Encourage employee engagement outside of work

‍

Coming to our last employee engagement ideas, include and encourage your employees to participate in social events. Support social causes outside of conventional work set up to help establish more personal bonds between employees and teams. 

Many corporate organizations are actively supporting community-building activities around their campuses to help out the people living around their workplace. Encouraging employees to form clubs around their interests helps build better communication between employees leading to better engagement and ultimately better productivity.

When employees feel connected with their coworkers, they will be more aligned to organizational goals. So, when employees are happy and comfortable communicating with their colleagues it fosters loyalty between employees and the company.

‍

Conclusion

‍

Employee engagement activities are the secret ingredient of successful HR leaders globally. Therefore, at a time where it’s becoming harder to engage and retain talent, employee engagement ideas are working out quite well. Millennials are already a job-hopping generation and they now make up the majority of the workforce worldwide. With challenges like this, it is time for organizations to employ unconventional engagement hacks to engage employees better and retain their best talent. You don’t want to say goodbye to your best talent, do you?