Employee engagement is undoubtedly an important aspect which needs constant attention within any office. Having an engaged and motivated team can be hugely beneficial to the business, however building and maintaining such a team can prove to be a challenge.
Having a few fresh ideas to help build employee engagement can make all the difference. Here’s our top 8 ideas!
1. Encourage Employees to Speak Up
Employees can often have helpful ideas and solutions for your business. Maybe they have an idea to make for a better office, or can help streamline operations. Unfortunately, a lot of the time employees don’t feel comfortable voicing their ideas and concerns, which can obviously be detrimental to your business.
It’s important to breakdown these barriers and develop a culture where ideas can be put forward without criticism or judgement. This can be done through having an ‘open-door’ policy, allowing employees to schedule meetings with managers, and even holding weekly or monthly discussions, where teams can discuss anything they want to address.
2. Help Your Employees to Get to Know Each Other Better
Having a connected team where people know each other and are comfortable communicating is key to having a well-functioning business. As companies expand it can get increasingly difficult to ensure colleagues know each other past a basic ‘face-to-a-name’ level. Help your employees connect and get to know each other by holding fun events and activities.
This could be office games, an office party at the end of the workweek, or take the team out to a bar or sporting event. Think about the type of people in your office and plan accordingly! It’s also important to note that office chatter isn’t necessarily a thing to be avoided. Obviously work and business related conversations are important, but a break with a chat about the weekend or a TV show can be healthy.
3. Serve as a Mentor
Someone who’s struggling to engage with work can greatly benefit from a bit of help. Setting time aside for team members who need help can go a long way in improving engagement and showing your interest. It shows that you care and are approachable, and this should boost the overall engagement levels. You’d be wrong to think mentoring is a waste of time.
4. Encourage Positive Health & Wellness
Workers that come to work healthy and fit are going to feel better and therefore, are likely to work better. Stress, lack of exercise and poor mental health is a product of the busy lifestyle of modern professional life. The key to engagement in the office is to combat these things by encouraging a healthy lifestyle.
Put on healthy office lunches or take your team out. Some companies offer gym memberships or have weekly massage therapists come into the office. Improving employee engagement can be as easy as stocking healthy snacks in the office.
 5. Be Flexible
This is a big one and can be applied in numerous ways. Employees must be held accountable for their performance, but if they get the work done, they should receive the flexibility they deserve. Giving up leadership can be hard as you don’t want to lose control, but when flexibility is implemented effectively it can have a noticeable difference on employee engagement.
Allowing employees to work from home, choosing their own hours, giving them a personal day, or even letting them choose the dress code are just some of our ideas!
6. Create a Unique Office Environment
Let’s face it, office life can get dull and tedious. Sitting in the same place for 8 hours, 5 days a week is never going to be fun. Not only is it boring, a dull office will do nothing to improve engagement.
Create office culture by slowly adding things your team likes. Music, artwork, even an office pet or fish tank can liven the place up. An office with lots of natural lighting and plants is a great place to start.
7. Hold Fun in High Regard
Having fun and being in the office doesn’t need to be mutually exclusive. If staff are enjoying themselves at work it’s obvious they’re going to be more inclined to come in, happy and ready to produce great work.
We have already touched on a few of these things. Fun doesn’t have to disrupt the office. End of week events, music and lunch time activities are great for increasing workplace engagement.
8. Let Employees Focus on What They Do Best
Employees want to know their work is being appreciated and is having a meaningful impact. Pair this with the work they enjoy and do best and you will have an engaged worker. Find out your worker’s strengths, ask them what they are comfortable and enjoy doing and assign them with related projects. This shows you are paying attention to your staff.
Group similar workers together and allow them to collaborate. Not only will this improve their engagement but it can help improve their skills in areas they’re interested in. Over time you will build up teams of experts in different areas. That’s exactly what the aim of building employee engagement is all about!
Of course, there are endless ways to build employee engagement in the office. Try the things out on this list and build from it! What employee engagement tactics have you used? Let us know in the comments.
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