You’ve got a new idea you’d like to implement next quarter, and you need a buy-in from your boss or a team of stakeholders. But did you get buy-in from your employees, too?

It may sound backwards to need employee approval – after all, you’re the HR manager. You roll out solutions to the company. Employees find out about programs once they’re in action. Or at least that’s how it normally happens.

When creating new employee engagement strategies, why not include the actual employees in the process? That’s what HR departments are doing in 2019. Here’s a look at some of the approaches you can take to boost engagement at your organization.

1. Avoid the routine

When a task becomes routine, it becomes stale. As soon as your engagement initiatives lose that excitement or allure, they risk being viewed as ordinary or “corporate.”

What you really want out of a successful engagement program is for staff to say, “Wow, I’m glad we’re finally doing this” or “I’m pumped to see how this works.”

What this means on a day-to-day basis is:

• Don’t send automated surveys at expected intervals. Switch up your timing, survey format and subject matter.
• Host or sponsor impromptu events. Send a quick email before end of day and then make the rounds through the office encouraging personal attendance.
• Individualize swag, perks and rewards. If everyone receives the same stock koozie or branded water bottle, does anyone feel special? Offer an extra PTO day to an employee you know especially likes to travel (or just needs a day off), or purchase a concert ticket for an employee to see their favorite musical group perform. 

2. Create a community of lateral communication

Sometimes referred to as multidirectional engagement or peer-to-peer collaboration, lateral communication goes a step further. Instead of having workplace discussions in which managers or executives hold center stage and staff chime in only when asked, create an entirely flat conversation structure.

During your meetings, everyone is equal. Everyone’s opinion is valued. There shouldn’t be hierarchy in the room, or else employees may feel exposed, unheard or fearful of retribution.

A feedback-safe environment fosters excellent communication and ideas that are genuinely new. Nearly 70% of employees cite they are “not engaged” or “actively disengaged” at work, so reframing the way you speak can be a small tweak with big results.

3. Apply customer service principles to staff engagement

Step away from your professional HR role for a moment and evaluate what you personally value from interactions with other companies. What makes you buy a product again and again? Which brands do you loyally support? Perhaps you thought of Amazon, which has super-fast shipping. Venmo is an app that makes payments incredibly easy. 

Treating your employees with a similar level of service while meeting their needs is key to true engagement. Today’s workers see automation, personalized ads, limitless digital shopping carts and mobile apps in their everyday lives – and now they expect it in their professional lives as well.

Using an all-encompassing single engagement platform that provides real-time dashboards, personalized goal-setting, gamified rewards and crowdsourced knowledge-sharing is a must. These features are second nature to employees, especially those who love to stay connected. It’s essentially engagement on their terms. iSolved with Mojo includes these features, allowing you to better connect with your team members and encourage collaboration.

4. One-click recognition and reinforcement streams 

It’s easy for supervisors and department heads to get bogged down in data, such as delivery quotas or performance metrics. While numerical benchmarks are useful at a macro level, employees are more than the sum of their productivity.

In short, celebrate people, not just their output. Being publicly recognized for stellar teamwork can be just as satisfying as hitting a sales target. Soft skills and interpersonal talent should be highly regarded and reinforced throughout the entire company, which can be accomplished best with a system that enables all staff to provide positive feedback and praise.

Modern HR platforms permit employees and employers alike to use points, scoring systems, social interactions and attribution models to publicize a job well done – and companies of all sizes can benefit from such technology.

 

 

 

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