‘Did you know that the average person spends more than 90,000 hours at work in their lifetime?’
So how do you make sure that hose 90,000 hours engage, motivate and challenge your employees and ultimately contribute to their overall happiness at work?
But first, what is ‘employee engagement’? According to Forbes, employee engagement: ‘Is the emotional commitment the employee has tot he organisation and its goals’. So it’s not the same as employee satisfaction or employee happiness. Making employees happy is different from making them engaged. Engaged employees love their jobs, believe their employer, company goals and the manner in which they conduct their business.
As we read the article from Gallup you will read that worldwide, only 30% of employees are engaged in their work. More than 50% of employees said they weren’t engaged, and almost 20% of the employees stated that they were ‘actively disengaged’. So we can conclude that employee engagement is a serious topic. By knowing those facts it’s time to know how engaged your employees are and how you can increase this.
Let’s discuss 5 simple ways to increase your employee engagement
1. Employee engagement surveys
Do you really know how your team members experience the work environment? The priority of employee engagement is no longer on the employee to be happy, but rather, on the manager to ensure each employee feels fullfiled in their role, supported by their manager and leaders, and connected to the company’s purpose. The INPROVE employee engagement surveys have proven to boost the motivation, engagement and understanding. You will be able to generate more data about your team members and obtain a clear in-depth picture of the current staff engagement in your company.
2. Gamification
Gamification does not imply creating a game. It means makes HR initiatives more fun and engaging employees, without undermining its credibility. Gamification helps employees gain motivation towards their role and because of the positive feedback they get pushed forwards and become more interested and stimulated to learn. Engagement is the most important metric for success in gamification. Earlier gamified projects of INPROVE showed that the engagement of teams goes up with 80% after playing The Hunt (an alternate reality game). An Alternate Reality Game (ARG) is a highly engaging project (it’s not a game), weaving the real world through a compelling backstory, using different media, subtile gameplay, and influence from the community that plays it.
With The Hunt we create a mystery shopping game where all your team members can excel by showing the best employee behaviour to create a memorable customer experience. Gamification helps to boost your employee engagement in a very short notice and generates high impact, but most important it’s Fun!
3. Encourage remote working
Due to COVID-10 we are forced to work more flexibel, remote and agile. We can conclude that flexible and virtual work is the BIG thing at the moment. According to Globalwork 68% of the employees globally say they are very succesful working from home. 77% of the employees are satisfied with the flexibility they have working from home and they feel they are more productive from home then working in the office. With those results in mind we strongly advise to embrace the new way of working and continue with working remote. You’re employees will feel appreciated, it will boost the engagement by allowing more at the end, a virtual workfoce also cuts overhead costs and shows that you trust your employees.
4. 360 degree feedback
What has employee engagement to do with your managers? A lot. The Gallup 2017 report also concluded that employees working for a highly engaged manager are 59% more engaged than employees working for disengaged managers. This sounds logical right? Managers make or break the experience for their teams. How can you tell whether your managers are truly engaged or they are just doing there work without any motivation?
The 360 degree feedback survey from INPROVE can be an outcome. With those surveys you not only measure your employee engagement, but you also get clear insights on you’re leadership behaviour. The outcome gives you new insights and feedback on their own personal development. You can raise the engagement from the whole team, it will help you getting feedback from employee to manager but also from peer to peer. Perfect to discover the talents in your organisation and to start working on the personal development of your managers and employees.
5. BYOD (bring your own device)
Earlier, we already spoke about generation Z (born between 2001 -2015). At the moment this is the largest group that is active in the workfield and they are glued tot heir device. For that reason, why should you not let them use it? BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) increases employee engagement by giving autonomy to work the way they want, when they want. In the long run, these minor gains lead to big achievements. So do not give them you’re angry face when you see an employee with their Iphone. Do not upset your employees, let them use their own devices (and also learn from them! ????)