Employee engagement is not an exact science. So far, the whole concept has been built on HR experience, positive psychology and business models that engage a company’s talent towards a productive culture of success.
At the core of employee engagement, similar to any company’s foundation, are some values. These values determine the why, how and what of that company.
In today’s economy, you’re building your company brand both through external as well as internal efforts. Playing two battlefields at the same time can prove to be tricky, that’s why some companies decide to focus their resources only on the external branding front. Meanwhile, they neglect their internal environment, failing to provide an engaging, challenging and appealing workplace.
Enters talent management. A grey area where an HR manager meets a Talent Manager/Chief Happiness Officer. Confusing? Yes. And if it’s confusing for the person actually holding that position, imagine what it does to the employees he or she is supposed to be engaging.
So, we came up with 25 ideas that can save a manager in need of some inspiration. If you’re pressed for time or simply want to save all these ideas, download the free eBook with 25 employee engagement ideas for your team.
1. Assign company values
Assign one of your company’s values to a certain employee, every month, based on a peer-voting process. The person who best represented that value can be set as an example and be publicly acknowledged for his actions.
“One of the most important things when your business starts growing is to help your employees to understand your company’s values. I discovered this method when my business took off and it was a great help with creating the right mindset and also with bonding the workers.” – CEO of California Movers USA Anton Galushko
2. Have teams create their own set of values
Designing your own game rules makes playing a lot more fun. Team synergy is not an easy objective to attain, and it’s definitely not a rapid one. But it is essential to the end-game objective and to the overall performance of the project. Having teams create a team culture, based on 2-3 commonly agreed values or ground rules can help nurture and speed up that process.
3. Encourage personal projects
Give employees a 1-2 h/ day window to pursue their own projects. Having people from different departments connecting and bouncing ideas can help get a new perspective. Projects and initiatives can get new directions, encouraging a creativity and energy flow that would only benefit the rest of the working hours.
4. Assign a buddy/mentor for every newcomer
An important part of the onboarding process is having someone answer some really important questions. Questions that someone would be hesitant to simply ask a manager. Building a trustworthy relationship with someone with more experience in that company can help guide the newcomer. This way he or she can better adapt and grow part of the team.
5. Have themed office days
For the more open-minded companies, this initiative can bring a lot of fun and increase employee loyalty.
6. Have team photos
Have photos of your team on a wall, or frame them around the office. Group photos, funny photos, events photos or random photos snapped when people weren’t watching. It’s a cultural element that can encourage and foster work relationships and employee engagement.
7. Play the Happiness At Work card game
By applying knowledge of the brain and how we work together, Choose Happiness @ Work engages adult learners in a unique and powerful way. It is a powerful tool that engages learning, application, humor and team-building in a fun, facilitative experience and it teaches science-based tools in a way that allows people to safely raise and discuss issues, build trust, and boost engagement.
8. Encourage charity
I got an email the other day, after downloading a resource online that simply made my day. The awesome people at Network For Good came up with a Corporate Charity Gift Card. You can personalize your own company gift card and reward employees by allowing them to make a charitable donation to an organization of their choice. Take Aveda’s example. The company came up with a cause that was aligned with their company’s mission, empowered employees to team up and raise money for that cause, in a friendly but competitive manner. And it worked.
9. Encourage volunteering
If you find yourself doubting the classical money-to-charity approach, you should try the new volunteer-for-a-cause angle. Give your employees a couple of days a month to volunteer for a cause they support.
10. Raise salaries
I’m sure at least half of the people reading this article will have an eyebrow up at this point. According to a Gallup study 44% of the employees are willing to take job to another company for a raise of 20%. This percentage drops to 30% for employees that work in an employee engaging environment.
11. Remind people your company’s mission and values
It’s important that you emphasize, once in a while, what your company stands for. People need to be reminded of why they are doing what they’re doing.
12. Recognize and encourage innovation
You might have heard some pretty inspiring ideas around the office. What about that project that came together so well and had some amazing improvements that no one initially thought of? Find out who came up with that idea. Give them a friendly “Good job!” or recognize them publicly for going the extra mile.
13. Celebrate achievements
Big or small, they are the solid proof that the work people are putting in has meaning. No one can go through tasks and assignments for months, or even years without burning out. Refill their energy tanks with some recognition and celebrate their hard work. This is also a great way to glue together teams.
There are many ways to appreciate and celebrate an employee’s achievements, but it means more when they receive a gift as an appreciation for their progress. More than just actions and written communications, but the formal and tangible items, such as custom made pins or coins for years of service, which will be cherished and held as an honor.
14. Celebrate people
Birthdays, promotions, retirements, newcomers welcoming, there are plenty of important moments where people can be put at the front of the company. They make the company and it’s a great and relaxing way of showing them that they matter.
15. Give and receive feedback
Yes, everyone knows that and everyone talks about it. But it’s really hard to implement. You’re dealing with peoples’ work, their position, their emotions and key success factors. It’s a dangerous mix that the wrong feedback can cause to explode. Keep it simple. Offer a framework or a system that employees can use with confidence and honesty. Let them know you value their opinion and, most importantly, act on that feedback. More thoughts on feedback.
16. Try some unusual employee engagement ideas
It’s the small things that can sometime make a difference. Like having colored mugs at work or an awesome air freshener.
And since we’re on the Out-of-the-box topic, you could try an Art Team Building. The guys at Team Building Singapore came up with this concept that encourages creativity and gives employees a different way to connect.
17. Show respect
This should be the cornerstone for every office interaction. Especially when it comes to people in different hierarchies. Read more about Respect In The Workplace.
18. Empower your employees
Nothing creates a greater sense of responsibility and ownership like having the decision power. Don’t be afraid to let people be their own leader. It’s surely a great way to build trust, as opposed to micro-management.
19. Encourage learning
Challenge and support employees in learning and developing their skills. Not only will you have a motivated and well-prepared workforce but you’ll see an increase in employee happiness and employee engagement.
20. Get social
Go out, have fun, have teambuildings and weekend competitions! It can be really overwhelming to work, work, work 8-12h a day and crave a weekend that passes in a blink of an eye. Join sports competitions and encourage team playing activities.
21. Make sure that people have all the resources they need
This doesn’t sound like other typical employee engagement ideas but it has an important purpose. You need to make sure that you have the basics covered before you move on to other, more abstract, ideas. Equip your employees with the tools and systems that will make their job easier. This way, you’ll get them to invest their energy into doing great work, instead of wasting precious time.
22. Ask the people who really know employee engagement
Being as this is a fairly new business component, you should trust the experts. Consult the right people to help you build a solid employee engagement strategy.
23. Get answers from your employees as well
This is related to feedback but it’s more of an indirect feedback. Monitor and analyze your employees, your teams and the overall workspace. You’ll get some essential pointers into what works and what you can improve.
24. Build long-term engagement
Don’t settle for a quick fix. Develop a long-term employee engagement strategy with clear objectives and action steps for more than a year, then re-evaluate and build on it.
25. Try and try again
We’ve based this advice on our experience and the experience of others that we’ve worked it. However, what works for one company might not work for another. It’s important that you try and adapt, until you find the perfect angle for your employee engagement strategy.
Takeaway
The basic HR processes, recruitment&selection, onboarding&training, performance management, performance appraisal, rewards and recognition and actual employee management leave little or no time for employee happiness or employee engagement.
We recommend that you have someone specifically responsible with employee engagement, to track and measure changes and improvements made.
Start with these 25 employee engagement ideas and build on that. Tell us how it goes!
Great article. I recently wrote one on Employee Engagement myself- here is an excerpt.
The data clearly shows that a significant portion of an organization’s staff believe their CEOs have negative mindsets and don’t communicate often enough with them. With all the stress it’s hard to always maintain a positive and enthusiastic attitude, however doing so will help lower your stress, increase your energy and make you feel a lot better. It will also set the tone for your entire company and make building up your personnel and inspiring them to become leaders a whole lot easier. To help you and your c-suite team more thoroughly engage your workforce I have listed some of executive leadership coaching
tips that I find most effective:
Look for what’s working well – not what’s broken or needs fixing.
Personally recognize and publicize their achievements whenever possible.
Create a culture of service and compassion.
When evaluating employee performance use the “sandwich” method:
Start by praising their contribution to date.
Then explain areas and ways their performance can be improved.
Conclude with some positive reinforcement that leaves them feeling respected, supported and valued.
employee engagement activity is the best thing which is done by hr and its a give refreshment therapy for employee on working time
Some absolutely fabulous points raised here! Gone are the days of ‘I’m the CEO and you do as I tell you’ to know a more dynamic team environment.
Thanks! Really glad you liked our ideas!
Really happy you enjoyed the article!
Hi Paula!
This article has really given me a clear overview of my job :)
I am an ‘Employee Happiness Officer’ at a corporate, the last point Try and try again makes sense now.
Hi Snigdha! Really happy you found it useful! What advice would you give to people who want to apply for such a position or who are just getting started as Happiness Officers?
All of these tips worked wonders in the 1990’s when Generation ñ was coming into the workforce. But since then, these tips have been used, abused, and manipulated by incompetent managers and led to the creation of toxic working environments. For example, telling off an employee and throwing in the word “feedback” does not excuse your lack of respect for the individual! I have come to realize that Americans are so socially handicap that it is impossible for American managers or “leaders” as they like to label themselves, to motivate, engage, and inspire individuals. Americans are so socially handicap that you cannot recognize the humanity within the worker. And that’s you #1 flaw as a manager!
I think we’ve all dealt with managers who don’t abide by common human interaction rules, let alone advanced leadership methods and it’s the objective, unfortunate reality of many workplaces. When we first started putting together these tips we had two individuals in mind: first, the open-minded, educated manager with a sincere desire to do their best for their team and secondly, the experienced manager who used to know all these things and maybe even came up with some of them but who needed a reminder after years of experience. Unfortunately, for managers who refuse to live up to the responsibility of actually developing a team and investing in the people they work with, you’re right, these tips will be useless. Hopefully more and more teams will be driven enough to change or replace this sort of managers.
These are all great! A few really stood out to me that I really liked. One of them being number four, assign a buddy/mentor for every new comer. Nobody likes being the new person anywhere, especially a job. Being the new person you are unsure of how things work in the office or where to go on your lunch break. Having someone there to show all of these things and someone to always ask questions to is very good tool to use. Another one that stood out to me was number fourteen, give and receive feedback. This is great because if you don’t tell the person what he or she is doing wrong, they will continue to do it. But giving feedback is a great way to talk to them about how to do things the correct way and receiving feedback from the employer is good because it allows them to voice their concerns with how things are doing within the company and can give you some excellent ideas. Here are a few games that can be played within the office to improve employee engagement http://vingapp.com/employee-engagement-ideas-win/
Thanks for the games suggestion Jennifer! I really appreciate the feedback!
Great Ideas,…Thanks for sharing…
Hi Rina! Glad you liked our ideas! Hope they prove useful to you and your team. We’re currently working on a new eBook for employee recognition, set to launch early next year. If you’d like to keep in touch with us you can join our monthly newsletter database (available in the website footer) or circle back from time to time, we know we’d love to have you! Happy Holidays!
Innovative Ideas, keep up the good work Paula towards releasing stress and stretching smiles on faces of employees :)
Thanks,
Thanks Nirav! Really glad you liked our ideas!
Amazing article! Great to see all these ideas to boost employee recognition. I just would like to reinforce number 13! Celebrating daily victories is extremely important, specially if your company is growing. Besides, from my personal experience I may guarantee that side projects impact greatly not only any employee motivation but also they contribute for the employees hard skills and knowledge transference to the company day-to-day.
Thanks for sharing João! Glad you liked the article!
Thank you so much, Paula, for this wonderful article.These ideas are very comprehensive, ready to use them in practice!
Happy that I found it, mainly because we’ve recently published a case study on the similar subject, based on our experience: https://www.timecamp.com/blog/index.php/2017/01/boosting-employees-engagement/. Hope you’ll like it!
Aleksandra from TimeCamp
This is a really interesting blog post, thank you for sharing these tips. We have recent posted two blog posts on employee engagement also as it is something spoken about a lot and something that should be taken seriously: http://www.realityhr.co.uk/blog/employee-engagement-tips-part-1/ and http://www.realityhr.co.uk/blog/employee-engagement-tips-part-2/ Happy and productive people equals growth!
Paula an insightful article on EE. Enjoyed reading it and hoping to implement as much as we can. Great work.
Thank you for sharing these tips
Hey Paula! Thanks for giving great ideas for employee engagement. In any business, employee is the important part and everyone should want to engage their employees and I am also looking for the same, your ideas are quite impressive and specially point no. 24.
These are a ton of great ideas to get businesses thinking about employee engagement! Kind of shocking to know that some sit back and do nothing. They are still on the “CEO do as I say every day” wagon, but employees are looking for more. Feedback is essential, kind words, fun events, and team building. A happy employee is a productive employee…so keep them happy! Even if it takes a little time away from the office, it will be time well spent on building productivity.
In today’s economy, you’re building your company brand both through external as well as internal efforts.This is great!
Fabulous article. Key topics covered. Indeed a great learning
Hi Paula, Thank You for those outstanding ideas! I have been pondering and looking for something different, this is great!
Employee engagement is a necessity to keep the interests and morals of their employees up. Activities like team parties, team outings, reimbursements, prizes, awards are a way to keep the workforce engaged and make them feel good. If not executed aptly, these can put a dent in the HR budget. To curb such costs, you could combine two or more activities. Being smart is the key here. You could also have your employees volunteer to host engaging activities.
Great article. Thanks 🙏
Great article
This blog is such a lifesaver!
Nowadays, it’s so difficult to identify how to keep employees engaged since every employee is different and may not appreciate the same activities as the rest of them do!!
Having these multiple ideas for different activities can actually be very helpful at retaining top talent and keeping them engaged successfully.
knowledgeable content
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