Every company wants to have a workplace filled with happy and engaging employees. Unfortunately, not every organization has figured out the best strategy to boost employee morale constantly. While many theories have been discussed and suggested online, not all ideas translate well in practice. Everything is becoming more digitized. Managers are continuously looking for ways to foster employee engagement to run a successful organization in this digital era.
If the aim is to increase employee retention and enhance productivity-improving employee engagement is the way forward. Since the covid-19 pandemic, employers have gotten more desperate to keep their workers happy and more engaged while carrying out day-to-day office tasks.
This article will help you understand how companies can take advantage of digital tools and methods to increase employee engagement.
Establish an Employee-Focused Culture
Building a thriving workplace culture goes beyond great benefits and compensation. It addresses how employees feel when they work and how it affects their welfare, growth, and interpersonal relationships within the company culture. When employees are more engaged, they can deliver better results. Happier employees have a positive attitude towards the organization and its values, which is necessary for its growth and success.
Changing the way management communicates with employees can boost morale and, inevitably, production. Many digital tools even allow for video calling options, which can personalize the way employees talk to each other and their managers. Since communication impacts every aspect of organizational success, it is considered a crucial part of a vibrant corporate culture. Communication affects collaborative efforts, job instruction, employee motivation, performance evaluation feedback, and team spirit.
Social distancing and teleworking have increased the need for more human interaction within the workplace. Using tools like Microsoft Team and Skype to check in on employees can make them feel valued, fostering a strong corporate culture. Employees can readily open up about their personal lives when they are one click away from their employers. Thriving companies focus more on the human element of their employees rather than productivity. In essence, employees should be treated as assets rather than costs.
Collaborations and Knowledge Sharing
Employee engagement has been linked to the use of social media and other digital tools within the workplace. Many successful organizations integrate private enterprise social media (ESM) services to improve employee engagement and overall performance significantly. Whether working in the same office space or remotely with your team, it is essential to encourage continual networking among team members across the company. Microsoft’s Sharepoint, Oracle’s Social Network, IBM’s Connections, and Salesforce’s Chatter are notable examples of ESM platforms.
An ESM network integrates collaboration features such as group messaging and task management to encourage team members to share knowledge and innovative ideas. The use of ESM has helped organizations achieve enhanced transparency throughout the organization, thereby improving efficient employee engagement.
For example, managers and business owners of writing service review platforms like best academic writing services can also use these digital communication tools to track employee engagement within their organization. Using collaborative tools with features that enable video conferencing, scheduling, and file sharing are effective ways for team building. A positive employee engagement culture emphasizes teams rather than individuals, which effectively drives impact rather than compliance.
Rapid Feed-forward Evaluation System
Many companies still conduct employee evaluations once per year, which is a relatively slow process. Waiting until the end of the year to provide comprehensive feedback on job performance does not seem practical anymore. Progressive organizational structures have adopted a more frequent feed-forward system to boost employee engagement. A feed-forward system essentially replaces the traditional positive/negative feedback system with future-oriented options.
Companies that aim to engage and retain assets for employees should shift to a more feed-forward eval system. This agile method addresses the company’s bigger picture with its employees, discussing employees’ aspirations. Managers use the feed-forward method to help set goals for employees that align with the business’s future and success. Feed-forwarding can even be in the form of frequent surveys.
Carrying out frequent employee engagement surveys using various digital tools can provide valuable and accurate insight into workers’ minds. These surveys give managers a better understanding of the emotional and mental state of their employees. Applications like Culture Amp, TinyHR, and Talmetrix have proven useful to determine the engagement level within organizations. These apps also help to provide faster feedback between team members and upper management. Business owners can rely on these digital tools for a constant flow of information within the organization.
Companies are also heavily integrating a more data-driven method to predict, suggest, or even demand employee engagement. Having more informal and rapid feedback discussions instead of the annual or bi-annual appraisals proves more effective.
The covid-19 pandemic has shown many companies that the traditional annual evaluation method isn’t enough to survive, let alone gain a competitive advantage. According to Gartner, about 87% of HR leaders considered changes to performance reviews in 2020. However, the newer approach where data is collected in real-time and feedback is frequent and casual is more efficient. It allows for employees to improve upon their performance continually and for supervisors to offer more accurate evaluations.
Employee Recognition
No employee wants to keep working for an employer that does not appreciate their value. It is a basic human instinct to want to feel recognized and appreciated. There are many ways to make your organizational assets (employees) feel valued and motivated. Setting up a simple recognition system like thank-you notes for being part of a team project can go a long way. Another method is by publicly appreciating employee efforts on company social media platforms or in team messaging groups. The idea is to recognize employees who go the extra mile by motivating them to be more engaged at work.
For more prominent organizations, appraisal bonuses and quarterly awards are given to top-performing employees to motivate others to be more engaging. Employee recognition plays a vital role in lifting employee morale to perform their duties with a positive attitude. Employee recognition also boosts higher employee retention, increases productivity, and maximizes revenue for the company.
Conclusion
Employee engagement goes hand-in-hand with employee productivity. Employees that are motivated to work are more devoted to the organization, helping boost customer satisfaction. Managers rely on happier employees to increase the organization’s reputation. On the flip side, employees who are less engaged with colleagues and office activities are less likely to increase productivity.
The chosen technology must be user-friendly, allowing older peers to be on the same page as the younger and tech-savvy generation. The rapid feed-forward system uses an agile approach to drive more engagement toward valued tasks.
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Author Bio:
Melissa Mauro is a self-improvement author who is always interested in new projects. She wants to create her own writer brand, that’s why Melissa is looking for fresh platforms for the implementation of her ideas. Creativity and unique style make it possible to deliver valuable and engaging content to her ideal reader.
