Employee Engagement Strategies

Employee retention is at the top of every business's priority list with the competition for talent as fierce as it is. To get an edge, and to keep your best workers working for you, you need to focus on employee engagement. 

Here are some employee engagement strategies for your workforce.

With today's competition for talent, and the sometimes challenging task of recruitment, retaining valuable employees is a critical priority for employers across all industries in the US. 

You may think that the key to retaining employees is offering free coffee and snacks, and practicing good old casual Fridays. Sure, this is a great start toward a warm and positive workplace culture, but you aren't doing anything that everyone else isn't already doing. 

You need to find your edge, and that's where these employee engagement strategies come into play.

Employee Engagement Strategies

There are three primary employee engagement strategies that every organization should consider implementing. The strongest work environments often practice all three, and well. 

Help Employees Create a Work-Life Balance

An unhealthy work-life balance is one of the leading causes of death of employment at a company. 

All kidding aside, employee burnout is one of, if not the most, common reason that employees leave a company, and burnout happens as a result of an unhealthy work-life balance. 

Since the COVID-19 pandemic,  workers have become accustomed to the positive benefits that hybrid and remote work provide for their work-life balance. In a hybrid or remote work environment, employees can enjoy the ability to save countless hours of commuting to and from work and can spend more quality time with their families. It also can allow employees to do hands-free tasks on days when they are home, such as washing clothes or letting the dog out.

Here is a more complete list of tactics employers can use to help promote healthier work-life balances: 

• Hybrid work opportunities
• Flexible work hours
• Emotional wellness programs
• Physical wellness programs

Provide Professional Development Opportunities

Nowadays, and especially in younger generations of today's workforce, choosing a job that provides opportunities for career growth is everything. 

A nice paycheck certainly can help to pull in and retain talent, but if you want to keep your best workers engaged and invested for the long run, you need to provide them a path to walk down. 

Employees who feel there is no opportunity for growth within a company often become disinterested in their work, leading to frustration and the employee looking elsewhere for job opportunities. 

Employers should focus on good performance review processes and schedules, employee development opportunities such as skill courses and workshops, and introducing new responsibilities to those who are ready for them. 

Create a Culture of Win Recognition

More than anything, everyone just wants to feel appreciated. Recognizing wins is the most important part of that. 

A bump in pay is seen as a great reward and is a great start toward recognizing wins and achievements. Non-discretionary bonuses are a great way to motivate employees to do their best, as it makes the hard work to reach those achievements worth it. However, employees also want to see their work make an impact. 

Recognition can be as simple as recognizing a personal achievement of a colleague, or a “shout-out” from a manager in a company town hall meeting.

Consider having somewhere that employees can write down weekly wins, and then review them all with your team each week in celebration. 

Other Tips for Keeping Employees Engaged

Aside from the above strategies, there are more general tips that employers can consider to keep employee engaged. 

These factors that can improve employee engagement include: 

• Providing a smooth onboarding process (consider using paperless onboarding solutions)
• Setting clear expectations for success from day one
• Give transparent, timely feedback
• Refrain from micromanaging 
• Be flexible with work models and hours

Get Help with Employee Engagement

Businesses that are struggling with employee engagement and retaining employees may want to reach out to an HR company for help. 

HR companies often have things such as employee onboarding software, learning management software, performance software, and more, all of which can help with implementing these strategies. 

Contact us today to learn more about how we are already helping countless businesses with employee engagement and retention.