10 employee engagement ideas to boost retention

10 employee engagement ideas to boost retention 

Follow these 10 ideas for employee engagement you can easily implement to drive engagement, boost productivity and actively reduce churn within your organisation. 

1. Maximise Workplace Flexibility

First on our list of ways to boost staff retention and keep employees engaged is  to introduce flexible working. These days, a flexible workplace isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s expected. In fact, an approximate 80% of people will not apply for a role if it doesn’t offer flexible working. 

This may be a sign of changing times, but it really does highlight the fact that if you’re not offering flexible working, how do you expect to attract and retain talent?

Trusting employees to work where they need to, whether that be at home or in the office, is the first step in getting workplace flexibility right. Giving employees flexibility through remote working isn’t just an employee engagement idea – it’s crucial for a modern, productive workplace.

2. Introduce cross-training 

Take workplace flexibility one step further and start to cross-train employees in the same departments. Not only can you keep productivity levels high when your people take unexpected time off, but providing the opportunity for employees to learn new skills is a great way to challenge your workforce, which is why it’s one of the best employee engagement ideas to implement.

3. Invest in your employees

Ask anyone who has recently left their job why they left – their reasoning will most likely be due to better opportunities elsewhere.

Whether it’s better pay, a new job title or even better perks, people can leave for a whole variety of reasons. So, how can you prevent this from happening at your company? It’s simple, invest in your people. 

Hiring from within and training staff to upskill them opens up opportunities for career progression, keeping employees on the ball and engaged, while improving job satisfaction. Win-Win. 

4. Listen to your people

As far as employee engagement ideas go, listening to your people might just be the most important. 

As a company, listening to your people should already be on the radar, but mastering the way you listen and engage with employee feedback is what really sets you apart from others. 

Utilising HR engagement tools can help you to gain employee feedback and take action. Not only will this give you better insight into what your people need, but if done right, it will improve engagement and job satisfaction across the board. 

Haven’t got an employee engagement tool yet? Try these quick engagement wins:

• Change performance reviews to performance conversations
• Implement quarterly all-company surveys
• Encourage your employees to approach you

5. Take action on feedback 

Listening to your people is great, but it’s useless if you don’t take action on your employees’ feedback. With over 70%​ of employees saying they are more effective at their job when they feel heard, this isn’t just one of the best inexpensive employee engagement ideas, it’s a necessity. 

With intelligent employee engagement surveys, you can gather employee feedback into actionable data that can be used to implement changes. Communicating these changes to your employees also helps to show you are actively working to improve your organisation based on their feedback.

6. Don’t underestimate the power of recognition 

One of the best ideas for employee engagement is to invest in employee recognition. Why? Because celebrating your people is the best way to boost engagement. 

Whether that’s via public recognition in the office or through an all-company email or even privately one-to-one, celebrating your people’s success can only do great things for your engagement. 

Recognition not currently your strong point? Consider starting your own in-house awards to celebrate great work each quarter, or make regular email shout-outs a regular occurrence. Whatever you decide on doing, recognising your people can only improve your engagement. 

7. Plan company-wide events

Everyone loves a company event, and they’re one of the best employee engagement ideas to get everyone in your organisation together and engaged with each other. 

Start to incorporate a couple of company-wide events into your calendar every year – give people something to look forward to. Not only does this allow employees to build stronger connections, but it also provides an opportunity to switch off and have some fun away from work. 

Not sure where to start? Start by forming a social event team with people from the business – after all, no one knows what your people want more than your people themselves.

8. Offer benefits and perks your people actually want

It seems as though every job advert or career site you come across is listing a number of employee ‘benefits’ that aren’t actually benefiting anyone. 

The legal amount of holidays, free parking and our personal favourite, daily fresh fruit, aren’t exactly the most exciting benefits; in fact, would you even call them benefits at all? We’ll let you decide on that one. Regardless, it doesn’t stop organisations listing these benefits in hopes of attracting potential candidates.

If you really want to engage your people (and attract new talent), you need to find what benefits your employees actually want. 

Conduct workplace surveys (one of our favourite employee engagement ideas) asking your people what they’d like to see from your business, and don’t be afraid to include your people in the decision process! Not only will the right benefit package boost engagement, but you’ll no longer be spending money on an ineffective benefits package – win-win!

9. Provide meaningful work 

Providing your people with engaging work is one of the most effective, but also inexpensive employee engagement ideas.

Working 9-5 is hard enough sometimes, so don’t let unfulfilling work that doesn’t allow your people to utilise their skills make it even worse.

Providing meaningful work helps to keep your people engaged, encourages them to go above and beyond and even helps them buy into your business, meaning staff are less likely to leave. 

10. Create an engaging onboarding experience

The first 6 months of a new hire’s career are crucial, so getting your onboarding right is something you simply can’t ignore. Not only can a good onboarding experience help new employees get settled into their role quicker, but 89% of employees actually say an effective employee onboarding process helped them feel more engaged at work. 

Using onboarding tech such as microsites and pre-boarding portals is another of our most highly recommended employee engagement ideas. This tech helps to create an onboarding experience that’s sure to keep new hires engaged now, and well into their career at your company. 

11. Build an employee engagement strategy 

Putting these employee engagement ideas into practice and building a great employee engagement strategy takes a lot of work and time – something that not many of us have spare. So, to build a strategy efficiently, you’ll need a HR tool that’s up to the job.

Talos Engage, Talos360’s intelligent employee engagement software, allows HR professionals to capture employee’s data through the use of employee engagement surveys, before converting them into actionable insights.

Only then are you able to identify what your employees are missing, what they love about your organisation, and what they think you could improve on – they may even have ideas for employee engagement of their own. 

What does ‘employee engagement’ mean?

Employee engagement refers to the level of attentiveness, productivity, and satisfaction within your workforce. This directly affects your company’s bottom-line; engaged employees drive better results, and stick with your business for the long run. 

Here are the core elements of employee engagement:

Career satisfaction

Career satisfaction is both a key measurement and building block of employee engagement. How satisfied do your colleagues feel in their day-to-day roles? Are they inspired to achieve, progress, learn, and develop? 

Engagement levels have a cause/effect relationship with career satisfaction. Greater career satisfaction leads to higher engagement levels – and in turn – higher engagement levels can lead to greater career satisfaction.

Productivity

The more engaged your employees are, the more productive they will be – it’s a simple fact of human nature. If employees become disconnected from your company’s vision and aims, you’ll likely see a drop in their day-to-day performance. 

It’s therefore important to keep your colleagues engaged with your company’s unique culture, and their individual career goals. 

Success

Top 5 ways to promote employee engagement

It’s not hard to understand why workforce engagement is necessary for long-term business success. An increase in day-to-day productivity, combined with resonance with your company’s vision and goals, helps employees thrive in their roles and contribute to the success of your business.

Encourage their contribution to brand development

A truly engaged workforce is one that feels invested in your brand’s products and goals. Encourage your employees to contribute to brand development – including marketing products and services, social media strategy, blog content, and awards submissions. 

Getting colleagues involved in the continued development of your company is a great way to boost employee engagement, and investment in your workplace culture. Show them that their ideas matter, and that they can truly influence your company’s mission. 

Hold ‘tribe’ business update meetings on a weekly/monthly basis to share new developments with your team, and gather their opinions and ideas. Transparency and collaboration can go a long way in boosting engagement, and contextualising their efforts.

Avoid micromanagement

The way you manage your team will heavily influence their engagement. Avoid micromanagement, such as ‘over-the-shoulder’ leadership – this can lead to decreased morale, lowered confidence, and employee burnout. 

Give employees autonomy where possible; set daily or weekly targets, and track progress in a non-invasive manner. Put them in charge of their own success, and have faith in their ability to achieve and exceed goals.

While it may be tempting to manage employees closely – especially those in more junior positions – doing so can decrease drive for personal progression. Give your colleagues the space to learn, develop, and shape their own careers. 

Adapt your EVP to meet their needs

Your employee value proposition (EVP) is the collection of incentives and benefits offered to your team in return for their efforts. This may include employee discount schemes, reward incentives, annual leave allowance, or flexible working initiatives.

It’s important to recognise the role of your EVP in employee engagement; failing to do so can lead to high staff turnover and decreased productivity. Survey your colleagues to identify key changes in their wants and needs, and adapt your EVP regularly to meet these.

There’s no use having a benefits package if it doesn’t truly resonate with your workforce. Find out what your employees want from their careers, and adapt your HR strategy to meet and exceed their expectations.

Discover your Workplace Value Proposition (WVP)

Use gamified engagement & wellbeing tools

Nobody knows how to boost engagement better than your employees themselves. They know what drives them, and equally, what impedes their productivity.  

Using gamified engagement tools (such as game-style surveys and quizzes) lets employees communicate their wants and needs quickly and effectively. This provides you with insightful data to improve your HR strategy.

Try using surveys and polls regularly to identify engagement and wellbeing challenges. Do your employees feel happy and supported? Are there any key changes they would like to see? Gamified tools deliver a simple, non-invasive way of identifying areas for improvement in your employee engagement strategy.

Introduce an employee reward scheme

Your colleagues are the driving force behind your brand’s success; recognising their efforts and achievements is essential to promote engagement and productivity.

By introducing an employee rewards scheme, such as progress-based vouchers, discounts, and added benefits, you can keep colleagues invested and engaged. This may be worth considering alongside your EVP optimisation – asking employees how they would like to be recognised for their achievements.

Incentivise success; give your teams a reason to exceed their targets. Some great examples o

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