Top Activities to Improve Employee Engagement

Activities to Improve Employee Engagement If You Are Not a Big Company
Top employee engagement scores across the board — wouldn’t every company like to be rated highly by their employees?  To have high levels of engagement, you need to identify the critical few activities to improve employee engagement that matter most for your unique situation.

Do You Need to Spend A Lot to Engage Employees?
The good news is that the short answer is no.  Snazzy perks, trips to Hawaii, a state-of-the-art gym on site, and gourmet meals in the cafeteria have consistently low levels of correlation with employee engagement.  In other words, these kinds of perks are not reflected in high levels of employee advocacy, discretionary effort, or intent to stay.

Do What You Can
Based upon data from our organizational culture assessments, our advice is to do what you can that makes sense for your unique workplace culture and talent management strategy.

Identify what your employees really value most. Keep in mind that it’s not so much what you can give them as about the quality of relationships you build and foster at work.

The friend who gave expensive gifts was less valued than the true friend who earned your trust, shared your values, and supported you through thick and thin.

To Start…

1. First you need to find out what your employees would truly appreciate and value from the organization.
2. Ask them in one-on-one meetings, in general company meetings, employee engagement focus groups, and via proven employee engagement surveys.
3. Get a sense of what they want and then be creative in getting their active involvement in matching their requests to your budget.
4. Be realistic in what you can offer but empower your people to create the environment that works for them.

Take Action
Once you know what your employees want to be more engaged, the number one thing you can do is to take action.  Employers who take meaningful employee engagement actions are 12-times more likely to engage employees.  While this seems like common sense, 80% of employees feel like meaningful change from employee engagement surveys does not happen consistently.

Some Ideas
There are loads of options that won’t break the bank. Here are eight ideas from a recent client who asked their employees to identify “free employee engagement activities” to help make their company a great place to work without negatively impacting operating income.

• Flexible work hours to enable employees to schedule around family needs and commute traffic
• The ability to work from home and attending meetings online
• A savings plan or advice on how to reduce student loan debt
• Prime parking spots for high performers
• Time off to volunteer
• Lunch and learns
• Allow pets at work
• Casual dress

At a Minimum
At the very least, you need to find ways to help your employees grow.  Evaluate their special talents; learn what they like to do best; uncover their career ambitions and dreams.

Once you know what each employee wants for their personal and professional future, you are in a position to help them realize their potential.  Work together to find individual learning and coaching opportunities that link back to the business strategy.

That way, both the company and the employee are in synergy and pulling in the same direction.

The Value of Trust
The Number One aspect of a great place to work according to employees is to be part of a culture of coaching and success that is built on trust.  You will know you are headed in the right direction when employees know they can depend upon one another, feel mutual accountability, speak openly and respectfully, have a say in how they do their jobs, and know that their contributions will be fairly recognized.

The Bottom Line
Big companies are not the only “great places to work.” Small companies offer many advantages — not the least of which is a close-knit group of people who enthusiastically support the company’s purpose.

To learn more about proven activities to improve employee engagement, download The Top 10 Most Powerful Ways to Boost Employee Engagement.