6 tips to instantly improve your employee engagement

There are many tools available in the employee engagement software market. Before you select one, we would like to give you 6 tips first on how to improve your employee engagement.

The first thing to understand is the difference between employee engagement and employee experience. What is an employee engagement definition? Typically, it refers to initiatives to improve employee engagement that might include feedback sessions and a smart module, such as Plek Engage. It allows you to focus your strategy and receive valuable insights that will help you to finetune your strategy using personas and people analytics.

1. Every experience counts

Employee experience describes the overall and individual moments each member of staff may experience that influence their perception. These moments may occur during employee engagement activities or in daily work.

An HR portal such as Plek can make every stage of the employee engagement process easier for you, more interesting for employees and critically, can keep you on track to achieve the objectives you set at the start of your journey.

2. Learn from others

It’s good to start by reading some case study employee engagement practices to obtain examples of employee engagement in companies in your sector and others. These will include how they have used internal communication methods to enhance employee engagement and employee engagement action plan examples. And can also provide inspiration on how employee engagement activities in corporate office can bring your executive team closer to the rest of your workforce.

You can also make use of popular theoretical approaches to employee engagement, such as the employee engagement pyramid. Always ensure when using this information to formulate your own strategy, that you only include elements that are practical and relevant to your organisation. Keep yourself up to date on the latest trends in employee engagement by following Plek’s thought leaders and attending our knowledge sessions and events. The Q12 Gallup survey also offers some great starting points.

Different employee engagement activities will be successful depending on your sector and the demographic profile of your workforce.

3. Do your research, but make it smart

To pinpoint your current performance against where you need to be, you might want to conduct an employee engagement survey. How to conduct an employee engagement survey in your business will depend on your infrastructure, but we recommend looking at something more modern than the traditional tickbox surveys of the past. Use employee engagement survey benchmark data to plan the questions that will deliver the information you need.

There may be standard employee engagement questions for a survey that will answer important queries for those working at a C-level, and these can be presented with an employee engagement graphic for any reporting needs. However, using a tool such as Plek Smart Conversations in tandem with surveys enables personalised exchanges that are more meaningful and promote employee engagement motivation amongst your workforce.

4. Let staff design their own input

Employee engagement ideas sourced from your own staff, should always form a significant part of your strategy. This is not only a practical demonstration that you are listening to your employees, these activities have a higher chance of success than generic ideas generated by people who aren’t involved with your organisation.

Similarly, employees should be encouraged to talk to each other, not just to provide upwards feedback. This can be facilitated in Plek, where individuals can join group chats and knowledge sharing modules.

5. Be open to criticism and act on it

There are always challenges of employee engagement that you can plan for, don’t expect everything to run smoothly from the start. Overcoming these, and the way you handle the issues you can’t predict, is how you will achieve true employer employee engagement. The best way to avoid any serious pitfalls is to include a contingency plan for responding to incidents in your employee engagement communication strategy.

Staff will be watching your reaction closely when issues arise. State upfront that you will deal with any negative feedback honestly, and understand that the opportunity for staff to raise issues they are unhappy with is an essential element of employee engagement and employee satisfaction.

If you can act on and resolve any criticisms quickly, this will increase confidence and boost your further employee engagement and wellbeing interventions.

6. Be clear on your objectives

There are many employee engagement productivity statistics available that will demonstrate the impact of a successful employee involvement programme. Performance management employee engagement now recognises that wellbeing is key to improving organisational health and meeting business objectives, so engagement with HR and their input into your strategy is critical.

There is an indisputable link between employee engagement and retention, if your organisation is experiencing a lot of turnover, there may be employee engagement factors at play. Many of the reasons for staff departure can be resolved earlier if the right questions are asked and action is taken to improve.

Plek incorporates tools to track staff engagement rate online and makes it easy to keep in touch informally. Initial contact will reveal the employee’s persona, after which they’ll receive tailored questions to keep you informed about their satisfaction levels. You’ll be alerted to any changes in their wellbeing and perception more frequently, and it will feel more personal than an organisation wide survey.

Finally, make sure that you keep employees informed about your employee engagement successes and the changes that you have made based on their feedback. Your strategy should feel like something that belongs to the whole organisation, not just HR or the corporate team.