The Five Pillars of Your Employee Engagement Strategy: How to Improve Employee Engagement and Retention with Tools and Best Practices
Employee engagement is crucial for the success of any organisation. Engaged employees are more productive, committed, and willing to go the extra mile. An effective employee engagement strategy can really drive your company’s bottom line and your team’s performance.
In this blog post, we'll outline the five pillars of an effective employee engagement strategy, discuss best practices for staff engagement, and share some effective tools for employee engagement that support each pillar.
1. Purpose
Why it matters:
An organisation's purpose, mission, and values play a crucial role in employee engagement. When employees understand the "why" behind what they do, they feel a sense of purpose and meaning in their work. A clear purpose and mission statement help employees understand how their work contributes to the organisation's goals. This helps employees feel invested in the company's success, which in turn boosts employee engagement and retention.
Three simple steps you can take today:
Share the company’s mission statement and values with your team, and discuss together how you can contribute to these goals individually and as a team
Review the goals and targets you have set for each team member, and make sure it is clear how these individual goals link to the overall mission of the company
Give public recognition to the team members who most embody the company’s mission and values - this could be in a public Slack message, a regular meeting / town hall, or wherever feels appropriate
Useful tools:
15Five: a performance management platform that helps align employees with company values and goals through weekly check-ins and goal setting.
TINYpulse: an employee engagement platform that provides tools to measure alignment with company values and identify areas for improvement.
Reflektive: a performance management platform that helps organisations align their employees with their company's mission and values through goal setting, feedback, and recognition.
2. Connection
Why it matters:
Personal relationships with colleagues and managers are another important pillar of employee engagement. When employees feel connected to their coworkers and managers, they are more likely to feel engaged and committed to the organisation. In their 2021 workplace friendship and happiness survey, Wildgoose identified a range of benefits to having friends at work, including more enjoyment, better productivity and creativity, and the feeling of being supported through workplace / personal issues. Creating opportunities for employees to connect, such as team socials, can help foster these relationships.
Three simple steps you can take today:
Schedule a regular informal team meeting in which each member can talk about how they’re feeling about the company, the job and life in general, and where team members can showcase some of the interesting things they’ve been working on
Get a regular social in the calendar, such as a lunch or after work drinks
Schedule regular 1:1 meetings with team members to discuss their progress and concerns, and to provide feedback and support. To allow these meetings to go into the depth they need and to encourage open conversation, schedule an hour for each meeting
Useful tools:
Gather: a platform that helps teams organise inclusive, reliable and varied team socials, building stronger connections through regular gatherings.
Donut: a Slack integration that randomly pairs team members for virtual coffee chats, encouraging cross-team connections.
Sococo: a virtual office platform that creates a shared virtual space for employees to collaborate and connect.
3. Growth
Why it matters:
Employees want to feel like they are growing and developing in their roles. Providing opportunities for employees to learn new skills, take on new challenges, and advance in their careers can help keep employees engaged and motivated. In fact, according to the LinkedIn 2018 Workplace Learning Report, 94 percent of employees said that they would stay at a company longer if it invested in their career development.
Three simple steps you can take today:
Schedule a discussion with each team member specifically to understand their personal development goals, and to encourage them to think carefully about their own development
Assign new projects or responsibilities to your team members to help them learn new skills - for example, a project to improve communications and ways of working with other teams in the business
Set up mentoring or coaching programs to help your team members develop their careers
Useful tools:
LinkedIn Learning: an online learning platform that provides employees with access to a wide range of professional development courses and resources.
Udemy for Business: a learning platform that offers courses in various areas, from professional skills to technology and personal development.
Skillshare: a creative learning platform that provides courses in areas such as design, photography, and writing.
4. Recognition and Feedback
Why it matters:
Employees want to feel like their contributions are valued and recognised. Regular feedback, both positive and constructive, can help employees feel appreciated and understand how they can improve. Recognising employees for their hard work and achievements can also help boost morale and motivation.
Three simple steps you can take today:
Regularly acknowledge and appreciate your team members' accomplishments and contributions, both in public and in private
Celebrate team milestones and successes
Schedule a regular feedback process (e.g. quarterly) for team members to seek feedback from internal and/or external partners. Share the strength and areas for development that come out of this feedback, illustrated by quotes and with concrete action plans for each area of development
Useful tools:
Bonusly: an employee recognition platform that allows team members to give and receive micro-bonuses, reinforcing positive behaviors and values.
Hi5: an employee feedback and recognition platform that provides tools for regular feedback and recognition across teams and departments.
Kazoo: an employee experience platform that provides tools for social recognition, goal setting, and continuous feedback.
5. Balance and Wellness
Why it matters:
Finally, balance and wellness is a critical pillar of employee engagement. Employees who feel overworked or stressed are less likely to be engaged and more likely to experience burnout. Providing flexible work arrangements, encouraging employees to take breaks and prioritise self-care, and promoting a healthy work-life balance can help keep employees engaged and motivated.
Three simple steps you can take today:
Encourage employees to take care of themselves physically and mentally by modeling healthy habits like taking breaks, exercising, and prioritising your own mental health
Discuss with each team member their preferred way of working and do your best to adapt to that where reasonable. For example, they might prefer not to be disturbed during a certain part of the day when they are most productive
If you can, offer flexible work arrangements such as remote work or flexible hours to help employees balance their personal and work life
Useful tools:
Headspace: a meditation app that provides employees with tools to manage stress and improve mental well-being.
Virgin Pulse: a well-being platform that provides employees with tools to improve physical health, manage stress, and improve overall well-being.
Blueboard: a rewards and recognition platform that provides employees with meaningful experiences such as massages, cooking classes, and other wellness activities.
In conclusion, a well-rounded employee engagement strategy should incorporate all five of these pillars, supported by employee engagement tools like the ones above. By focusing on purpose, connection, growth and development, recognition and feedback, and balance and wellness, organisations can create a work environment that fosters employee engagement and retention and supports their success.
Gather is a great tool to support the Connection pillar by organising inclusive, reliable and varied team socials, building stronger connections through regular gatherings while saving your team hours of time. Try gather today or get in touch at info@gather-app.co to learn more.