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Unfortunately, it's not always easy to keep everybody motivated and on the same page - and worse - failure to do so can cause some big problems.
Businesses that struggle with employee engagement often find it tricky to maintain productive, positive and profitable work environments, making for poor employee and customer experiences.
Fear not, Sideways 6 is on hand to help! And thankfully, there are plenty of ways to improve employee engagement and facilitate happy, productive workplace cultures, We've compiled 10 effective engagement strategies for you to help motivate your employees.
Employee engagement strategies are important because they help organisations get the most out of their teams. Engaged employees typically feel happier, more fulfilled and more comfortable in their roles, making for a more productive work environment.
When people are actively disengaged, it's much harder to foster a positive company culture, with the negative mindset of disengagement quickly spreading among employees if ignored.
Disengaged employees are like mouldy fruit in the bowl; if left too long, they affect the whole bunch.
According to Gallup's State of the Global Workplace: 2023 Report, organisations around the world suffered $8.8 trillion in lost productivity due to poor engagement, equalling 9% of total global GDP.
When companies adopt structured, accessible and repeatable ways to improve engagement, cost savings often soon follow, both due to improved productivity and related benefits like:
When people feel engaged and motivated in their work, positivity comes naturally, alongside:
In short, the more leadership teams do to listen to employees, act on feedback and motivate people to do their best work, the easier it becomes to build a happy, productive and successful business.
While the benefits of high employee engagement are well-known, data suggests keeping employees motivated and engaged in their work isn't always easy.
Recent reports show almost 80% of employees globally are either not engaged or actively disengaged.
One worrying point to note is that engagement levels seem to have dropped in recent years, with businesses in the UK seeing a 2.4% decline between 2022 - 2023, second only to German businesses.
Of course, there are many reasons why different businesses may struggle to keep employees engaged, ranging from big picture things like the economy to controllable things like the way teams are structured.
However, one point to keep in mind is that managers alone account for 70% of variance in employee engagement, meaning with the right strategies, it's more than possible to bring employees back around.
Before looking into any specific employee engagement strategies, leaders need to know how engaged current employees actually are.
To simplify things, it can help to look for the key characteristics of motivated and engaged employees:
To be more specific, leaders can get a good idea of how engaged employees feel by simply asking them.
What makes an effective employee engagement strategy will depend on your unique workplace culture, accounting for things like workflows, goals, work-life balance and how your team members work best.
Some effective ways to gauge employee engagement levels include:
Using internal communication platforms to ask employees specific questions about how satisfied, supported and happy they feel at work.
When senior leadership takes the time to speak in-person with employees, it shows people their opinions matter.
Poor communication leads to disengaged employees, so it's important to give people ways to share honest feedback and bright ideas.
Collecting this information over time can help leaders to measure the impact of employee engagement strategies, as well as build a foundation for acting on employee feedback.
When employees are given a way to share feedback freely, through a custom idea management solution for example, involving team members in the creation of effective engagement strategies becomes easy.
Now we know why keeping employees engaged is important, let's explore some employee engagement strategies you can use to motivate your teams.
One way to view employee engagement is through the lens of emotional connections. When employees feel a strong connection to their workplace, they'll usually feel more motivated to do their best work, so giving them a sense of ownership over key decisions can help to boost engagement.
This is particularly important for decisions that directly impact employees, things like changes to workflows, performance measurements and objectives. When employees have a realistic way to suggest improvements, they feel inspired to think critically about key tasks.
Using a platform like Sideways 6 to collect and organise employee feedback can simplify this process, making it easy for employees to share ideas and managers to find the best ones.
When Discovery used Sideways 6 to manage their own ideas initiative, 76% of employees said it made them feel more heard, helping to foster a stronger connection between employees and the organisation.
Business success is reliant on hard work, so it's important to ensure top talent is regularly recognised and rewarded. When someone goes the extra mile to solve a difficult problem or fix a tricky issue, they should be recognised, not overlooked and made to feel unimportant.
Many employees strongly agree, in fact, 44% cite a lack of recognition as the main reason for planning to switch jobs. On the other hand, 88% of employees believe receiving regular praise convinced them to stick with employers, making for a much more engaged workforce.
Effective recognition programs can include in-person acknowledgements during meetings, shout-outs through internal communication platforms and personalised growth opportunities.
Combining ideas and rewards programs is key to helping employees embrace change. When both work in tandem, people can be publicly recognised for ideas that bring value to the business, then personally contacted and rewarded to incentivise engagement in change.
Over time, previously motivated employees can start to feel disengaged as they settle into their roles. While it's rarely a good idea to overburden people, it is important to encourage skill development to help employees get more satisfaction and fulfilment out of their jobs.
74% of employees say it's hard to reach their full potential without realistic development opportunities, while 80% believe learning new skills is central to improving engagement.
The more engaged and encouraged employees are to learn and grow, the more open they’ll be to new roles and responsibilities. Typically, this will lead to lower turnover rates and more interest in internal mobility, reducing hiring and recruitment costs across the organisation.
Collecting employee ideas helps leaders offer tailored development opportunities. Idea platforms support the free movement of insights between departments, encouraging open conversations and reducing silos to make it easier for staff to learn new, far-reaching skills.
Improving employee engagement is a continuous practice. So, even if a strategy works well at first, it's not guaranteed to keep engagement levels high forever. While leaders may not have the time to commit to continuous training, ongoing learning can be shared among colleagues through mentorship programs.
Mentorship programs can take many different forms, with some being more formal and others less hands-on. Some involve asking longstanding workers to check in on new hires periodically, others are structured knowledge-sharing programs overseen by top performers.
No matter the style, the idea is to give employees the courage to share feedback and ideas without fear, helping to create a positive and inclusive workplace environment. When teams adopt mentorship programs, engagement and retention metrics can rise by as much as 60%.
Building trust between leaders and workers is key to increasing employee engagement. If you want your team to uphold company values and put their all into their work, you need to show them that their ideas and efforts are valued. The simplest way to do this? Always being clear and honest in communications.
By being transparent about things like employee performance, company health and growth opportunities, you can build trust and show a commitment to improving employee well being.
People will also be more likely to raise concerns about inefficient or even dangerous work practices, helping you to reduce costs linked to workplace accidents and resource waste.
Almost all engaged employees (96%) have one thing in common; they trust their bosses. So, making the effort to build employee engagement strategies around transparent business practices, and giving staff the freedom to share feedback and ideas, can help to keep employees interested in business outcomes.
Leaders can't be everywhere all of the time, and even if they could, high-performing employees rarely view overreach kindly.
Giving people more autonomy over the way they work is a great way to boost employee satisfaction and engagement, so long as you're mindful about how tasks are delegated.
By collecting employee feedback and learning which types of skills team members most enjoy building, you can delegate tasks with employee satisfaction and well being in mind, helping to prepare top talent for internal promotions to reduce turnover and cut hiring costs.
When employee engagement strategies allow room for people to feel more in control of their careers, it's much easier to promote a positive employee experience. Research shows more freedom = higher engagement, with 12% of staff believing this is the key to job satisfaction.
Effective employee engagement strategies aren't only focused on the way people work, they also speak to your wider company culture. Failing to create a sense of unity will often lead to disconnected and disengaged workers, so it's important to focus on team building initiatives.
ERGs are employee-led groups built around shared interests and beliefs, giving employees a space they can use to craft tailored wellness programs inside existing company structures.
Forming and supporting ERGs can speak to employee well being and help teams from shared backgrounds build fulfilling work-based communities. When people feel connected to their work in this way, it's likely that you'll also see satisfaction and engagement metrics rise.
Autonomy is a term that pops up fairly regularly across employee engagement strategies, and for good reason, as the more control people have the more motivated they tend to be. By giving employees input into the way their roles develop, you can help ensure people feel satisfied at work, reducing absenteeism and improving productivity to save time and money.
Autonomy can take different forms, from giving employees a say in decision-making to the freedom to set their own goals, often covering modern benefits like remote and flexible work.
Engaged and motivated employees thrive when they're allowed to focus on work at times and in spaces that compliment their personal lives. Without this freedom, creativity takes a backseat and morale can quickly drop, with almost 70% of surveyed employees believing micro-management kills job satisfaction.
If you want employees to give you their best work, you need to allow them to live their best lives. Work-life balance and employee engagement go hand-in-hand, with efforts to support mental health and wellness in this way said to be a major motivator for over 35% of workers.
As part of your engagement strategy, make sure to show empathy by supporting employees in their personal lives, both in terms of career development and workload management.
Not everybody views a healthy work-life balance the same, so employee feedback must always be considered here. Using an idea management solution to collect employee ideas about personalised incentives can be an effective way to do this, making it easy to engage employees in the process and craft well being plans around individuals.
To compliment shorter-scope employee engagement strategies, it's a good idea to show team members how their hard work can pay off in the long-run. By making it clear that you prioritise internal mobility, you give workers realistic and motivating goals to work towards.
Clear paths towards promotion can also benefit employee retention. Research shows that employees stay over 40% longer at organisations that regularly hire from within, helping leaders to retain top talent and reduce the amount of time and money spent on recruitment.
If you want to ensure employees stay engaged even when times get tough, it's long-term incentives like career progression that often have the biggest and most cost-effective impact.
For employee engagement strategies to be effective, they need to be adapted to suit the unique needs of individual employees. When fine-tuning your methods, keep the following best practices in mind.
Your employees are best-equipped to tell you which kinds of strategies will work best, or at the very least, what motivates them to do their best work. The more you can involve employees in your plans, the more invested they'll be in seeing them through and the greater the time, cost and efficiency benefits for everyone involved.
That said, there needs to be some structure to the way you gather employee ideas. By using a platform like Sideways 6, you can collect ideas inside the communication tools you already use, making it easier for employees to share their thoughts and for you to organise and highlight the most relevant proposals.
You can't expect people to follow your plans if you're unwilling to do so yourself. Building motivated and engaged teams is all about facilitating mutual respect, giving employees the tools they need to get the job done, as well as clear reasons for working to the best of their abilities.
Employees who feel supported by their direct managers are three times more likely to be engaged. So, efforts to show you're willing to put the work in alongside your team can help to improve engagement metrics.
Sometimes, an engagement strategy can work well at first, then begin to struggle as initial excitement wears off. People can fall back into old habits as work picks up and leaders have less time to oversee new practices, so it's important to regularly show team members the benefits of seeing plans through.
By spotlighting employees who work hard to stick to engagement strategies, you can make it clear that hard work will always be recognised. Employee recognition and engagement go hand-in-hand, with one study finding people are 2.7X more likely to be engaged in environments where recognition is prioritised.
Consulting employees isn't only a good idea when planning engagement strategies, it can also help you to fine-tune initiatives over time. The bare bones of your plans should stay the same, but some smaller aspects like how efforts are measured or recognised might need improving to best meet people's needs.
Asking employees for suggestions during regular meetings and through idea management solutions can help to iron out slight issues and keep everyone motivated. When people know their feedback can impact your workplace, they'll feel a sense of ownership over initiatives.
You won’t know an engagement strategy is working if you're not regularly measuring results. This doesn't need to be an in-depth analysis that derails other important tasks, just a few pre-decided parameters you can keep track of that can give you an idea of your progress.
Your team can help you here by telling you what engagement and motivation looks like to them. You can ask them to set employee engagement goals that you can monitor to see how projects are progressing, and look for tell-tale signs of satisfaction, engagement and motivation unique to individual employees.
Finally, it's a good idea to build development opportunities into the foundations of your engagement strategies. When employees can see clear avenues to progress their careers, it's easier for them to become more engaged in your business, helping you to retain talent and avoid costly recruitment processes.
As strategies take hold, you might also notice areas where certain people are excelling or new practices that they're interested in. Use these observations to create targeted development opportunities for different members of your team to help them stay motivated and engaged in their work.
Employee engagement really comes down to one thing, making sure people feel heard. You'll have a hard time building an effective engagement strategy without any input from your employees, after all, they're the only people that can really tell you what drives them to do their best work.
With Sideways 6, leaders empower employees to share great ideas inside the communication tools they already use daily, making it easy to build effective engagement strategies tailored to unique teams.
Avoid the hassle of adopting new software and empower employees to drive their own engagement initiatives with bespoke idea management tools built around you. Try out our product with a free demo today.
