Author: Kristina Proffitt

Categories
Wellness

8 ways to boost the value of your employee assistance program

An employee assistance program (EAP) can reduce absenteeism by up to 70%. It can also improve presenteeism, life satisfaction, workplace distress, and employee engagement.

But, on average, only around 10% of employees use EAPs.

Prior to the pandemic, this number was even lower at just 5%.

Why is this? Let’s explore what an employee assistance program is, how to encourage employees to use it, and how to increase its impact.

What is an EAP?

An employee assistance program is a type of benefit some businesses offer their employees. Through it, team members can get a handful of counseling or therapy sessions.

It’s designed to support employees’ mental health at work.

And given that a fifth of US adults are estimated to experience mental health challenges, it could have a huge impact on your employee engagement and productivity.

How to get more value from your EAP

Having an employee assistance program and experiencing its benefits are two different things. If your employees don’t use it (and as the numbers show, most don’t) then it’s not only a waste of money that you could invest elsewhere, but it also means your employees suffer needlessly.

So, what can you do to get more value from your EAP and ensure it’s money well spent?

Make sure you’re using the right provider for you

Just like with any other business you work with, you want to ensure your EAP provider aligns with your company values.

The way some companies offer support, even down to the language they use when talking to employees, may not be compatible with your business.

If you choose to keep your employee assistance program in-house, consider whether your employees will feel comfortable sharing private information with someone internal.

When discussing personal information, there’s always a chance employees will prefer to remain anonymous. Or that they’d rather discuss challenges with someone external and objective.

Especially when most people assume HR is there to protect the business, not its people.

These small differences can influence whether employees feel comfortable using your EAP and if it’s a success for your organization.

Tell employees about it

If team members don’t know about your employee assistance program, or how to access it, they’re not going to use it. So you won’t get your money’s worth and they won’t get the support they need.

Make sure to remind employees that it’s there regularly—in all-hands/town hall meetings, company-wide emails, on Workrowd, etc. The more places they can see it, the more likely they are to use it.

It can also help to remind employees that the support is there during challenging times such as mergers or layoffs. That way they know there’s support out there for when they feel like they’re on shaky ground. It can offer them techniques to support their mental health, prioritize their workload, manage survivor’s guilt, and more.

Make it accessible to everyone

Data shows that 75% of employees in the highest quarter of earners have access to an EAP. In contrast, just a third of the lowest quarter of earners have access.

But someone can experience challenges regardless of what they earn or where they are in their career. So why not make it accessible to everyone?

Especially in the current climate, when so much of what’s happening economically, politically, technologically, and environmentally is unpredictable and will inevitably impact employee well-being.

Your employee assistance program could provide team members with the tools they need to overcome obstacles and progress in their careers.

Create a culture where people are open about using an employee assistance plan

There’s still a lot of stigma out there around asking for help or having mental health struggles. Creating a culture where people feel open to admitting that they’ve used, or are using, your employee assistance program can help remove some of this stigma.

It can be particularly useful if your leaders share their journeys with similar initiatives. Whether that’s therapy, counseling, coaching, an EAP, etc. It shows they really do understand that it’s both necessary and helpful to get mental health support, and they won’t judge anyone for using it.

Share successes

Sharing successes—such as employees being able to better handle problems or even getting a promotion because of the guidance they received—can encourage other people to use the employee assistance program. It gives them a concrete example of what they could achieve if they used it, too.

These successes could be internal successes from current or past employees, or, if the program is new, external case studies provided by the provider you choose.

Ask employees what they need help with

The only way you can help employees effectively is if you know what they really need help with. How do you find that out? Ask them!

Using Workrowd, you can automate feedback surveys to see what is and isn’t working across your employee experience. This data can then help you make more informed decisions about how best to support your employees now and in the future.

Collect data

When you ask employees what they need help with, it can be useful to do so in a quantitative, rather than qualitative, way. This makes it easier for you to visualize how your employees feel and what they need from you.

For instance, you could ask them if they’d prefer an internal, external, or hybrid employee assistance program. Collecting information on this will help you create a program that’s more likely to be successful. Or it will allow you to pivot to improve employee participation rates. 

Conclusion

An employee assistance program can be a vital tool to help you provide an exceptional employee experience. If used the right way, it can create a culture of support and openness that helps employees overcome barriers. That way, they can progress in their careers and help your business stay ahead of the competition.

Support your employees from day one

If you’d like help finding out how best to support your employees, why not try Workrowd?

You can use our tools to collect employee feedback and share everything they need to know about your employee assistance program in one place. Get in touch today to book your free demo.

8 ways to boost the value of your employee assistance program
The top talent engagement strategies to focus on in 2025
6 benefits of an effective digital employee experience program
Categories
Employee Engagement

The top talent engagement strategies to focus on in 2025

2025 is here. Which means it’s time to start thinking about the best ways to support employees over the coming year. And, more importantly, the best talent engagement strategies to implement.

Even companies with highly engaged employees need to actively work on keeping those employees engaged.

Otherwise, as trends move on, employees can become disconnected from their roles and the company mission. And end up quiet quitting or leaving completely.

So let’s dive in to some talent engagement strategies to maximize your results in 2025:

Development opportunities

Providing learning and development opportunities is going to top the list of talent engagement strategies for the foreseeable future.

LinkedIn data suggests that 57% of Gen Z employees want learning and development opportunities at work. So if you’re not providing them, you’re likely missing out on a massive pool of talent.

Not to mention that by not offering training opportunities, you risk falling behind your competitors from a knowledge and skills standpoint. Which means that both your business and your profits could suffer.

Career progression

Tying into the professional development topic, employees are far more likely to want to learn if they have a path laid out for them.

It gives them something to work toward—a purpose—and a goal to achieve.

Knowing that if they put the work in there’s a promotion waiting for them is a good way to retain your top talent, too. Building career ladders and lattices is a key element of successful talent engagement strategies.

Purpose 

More and more, employees want to feel like they’re contributing to something bigger. They want to feel empowered and do something that speaks to them on a deeper level, rather than just something that pays the bills.

Having a deeper company mission is one way to connect with your employees. It’s also one of the most important talent engagement strategies.

But purpose can also be simpler than this. It’s can be about clear communication. What do you actually need your employees to do? What is their purpose within your business?

The more connected employees feel to your purpose—and the reason why they’re there—the more you’ll get out of them. And the happier they’ll be to work for you.

AI

AI is here to stay, but using it in the right way is key to making sure it supports your business.  Employees need to be taught how to use it effectively and how it can help, not hinder, their roles.

Otherwise, they either won’t use it, or they’ll fear it’s going to steal their job.

For example, they need to learn things like how to fact check any stats AI provides to confirm they’re accurate (it usually doesn’t link to an original source even when you ask it to); how to write prompts effectively to get the end result they want; and how to use it for idea generation. 

They also need to keep in mind that while it’s good for bouncing ideas around, it’s essentially a regurgitation tool. So if they want something truly original or creative, they have to use it as a virtual assistant and still do the legwork themselves.

That said, ensuring they have the tools and skills they need when it comes to new technologies ranks high on the list of talent engagement strategies.

Recognition and gratitude

Employee recognition never goes out of style. And it never falls off the list of top talent engagement strategies.

People want to feel seen and like the hard work they put in is recognized. A little thank you or virtual high five goes a long way.

When you thank employees for their hard work, they feel appreciated and like they belong in the workplace. 

It doesn’t have to be about a shiny bonus or even a celebratory meal. Sometimes it’s just about getting a shoutout in a meeting or on your employee experience platform. Simple things that make employees feel more connected to your business and the people in it. And that show someone has noticed and appreciated their hard work.

Office returns

The sad fact is that the mass return to office that’s been happening over the last couple of years is unlikely to end.

While there are lots of reasons behind these office returns—and they make businesses less inclusive—there’s too much of a cultural desire to return to the world pre-Covid and act like it never happened.

There are upsides to seeing people face-to-face. It can change how employees engage with each other and enhance professional relationships.

But balance is key. Hybrid work is among the talent engagement strategies that allow you to attract and retain people who can’t (or don’t want to) come into the office every day, but who can still contribute to your business.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion

It worries me that more and more, DEI is experiencing a backlash.

Big companies cutting their DEI budgets or roles; people complaining that everyone is too sensitive these days and how we can’t accommodate everyone; DEI businesses closing their doors because they’re not attracting enough business anymore.

I truly hope this doesn’t continue. But unless we’re actively working to create a more inclusive world, things can and will go backward.

Including one person doesn’t mean excluding anyone else. In fact, more diverse businesses have more engaged employees. And make more money as a result.

Championing diversity doesn’t mean making huge changes, either. It’s about having an open mind and finding ways to support everyone.

For instance, I’m lactose intolerant. Organizing an office lunch somewhere I can eat doesn’t mean anyone else misses out: we can all eat there.

It simply means I don’t get left out because everyone else can eat there but I can’t.

There’s no downside to including more people, so long as we remember not to exclude anyone—accidentally or otherwise.

Diversity benefits everyone, and definitely belongs on your list of talent engagement strategies.

Conclusion

These are just some of the talent engagement strategies to focus on in 2025. Several, such as recognition, are classics that never go out of style. Working on them and prioritizing them for your employee initiatives ensures team members always feel like a valued part of your business.

Newer additions like AI and purpose tap into current trends in the wider world. They’re things that are unlikely to go away any time soon, so the more your business can do to demonstrate attention to these areas, the more engaged your employees will be.

Discover what talent engagement strategies work best for your team

Want to find out what your employees want from you, and what could make them more engaged? Workrowd’s all-in-one suite of tools can help.

With a central hub for your employee experience including automated engagement surveys and real-time analytics, you’ll always have the data you need to maximize your impact. Get in touch today to book your free demo and find out more.

8 ways to boost the value of your employee assistance program
The top talent engagement strategies to focus on in 2025
6 benefits of an effective digital employee experience program
Categories
Hybrid/Remote

6 benefits of an effective digital employee experience program

Your digital employee experience program is key to attracting new talent, as well as retaining your existing talent. 

It shows everyone, internally and externally, that you’re a forward-thinking business. It’s also a sign that you embrace flexible work and want to make your employees’ lives as easy as possible. 

After all, if it’s easier for them to do their jobs, they’ll be more productive. And of course, that means that your business will make more money.

6 benefits of an effective digital employee experience program

Here are some of the benefits of an effective digital employee experience program:

More streamlined onboarding

Your onboarding process is your new hires’ first impression of your business. It has such a big impact that up to a fifth of new hires leave in the first 45 days. What’s more, up to a third leave within three months.

If your digital employee experience program incorporates tools that streamline processes and help new hires hit the ground running—alongside people and tools that make them feel like welcome additions to the team—they’re more likely to be engaged and want to stay.

Higher employee engagement

Just 23% of the global workforce is engaged, according to Gallup. Given the impact employee engagement can have on just about everything within an organization, this number is concerning.

If your employees aren’t engaged, they won’t be as happy in their roles. They also won’t be as productive, and won’t provide as good customer service.

It’ll have a ripple effect throughout the organization, too. New employees will feel less welcome because everyone who already works there feels so blah.

Moods and attitudes within communities are contagious, whether that’s between family members, friends, or colleagues.

Invest in your people by way of your digital employee experience program, and they’ll invest in you.

Increased productivity

Engaged employees are productive employees. Meaning they produce more and make you more competitive as an employer and a business.

And, of course, more profitable, too.

Better customer service

We’ve all decided not to buy from somewhere after seeing how bad the reviews are, right?

We worry that if we have an issue, the company won’t deal with it effectively, if at all. So we take our money elsewhere.

Good customer service is integral to a positive brand. It’s what brings people back again and again, and pulls in new business.

It can even improve your employer brand, attracting more employees who value good customer service and want to help you continue that trend.

But disengaged employees are far less likely to go above and beyond to please your customers. They simply won’t care enough about their role or the business to do so, since they won’t feel like you care about them as people.

On the flip side, when you invest in your employees and give them the tools to do their jobs effectively through your digital employee experience program, they’re happier. As a result, they’ll be more likely to want to support your clients and customers.

Increased retention

An effective digital employee experience program helps you retain your workforce. Why? Because it makes it easier for them to do their jobs.

If you’re still making them use outdated processes to connect with colleagues, everything slows down and increases workplace stress.

As a result, employees are far more likely to leave and take their skills and industry knowledge elsewhere.

Higher profits 

MIT research found that companies with a strong employee experience are 25% more profitable than those with a weak one. They also have double the NPS score and innovation levels.

All this means your business can grow faster while retaining its top talent and attracting more clients. If you continuously work on your digital employee experience program, that is.

How to build a better digital employee experience program

Now that we understand why building a positive digital employee experience program matters, let’s take a look at how to do it:

Use the right tools

The key to your digital employee experience program is in the tools you use. They need to fit how your business operates and be able to scale as your business grows.

Otherwise, your employees will settle into using a tool only for you to change it in a few years’ time. This can lead to disruption and disgruntled employees if they dislike adapting to change or don’t like the new tools.

That’s why it’s so important to use tools that integrate with each other or that do as much of what you need as possible. And to pick tools that are user-friendly.

Workrowd helps you keep all your employee experience initiatives in one place. You can create employee groups to help people connect, organize events, and share announcements to multiple places at once so that no one misses out. Plus, real-time analytics ensure you always know what’s working and what’s not.

Teach your people how to use the tools

It’s all very well and good providing employees with tools that can help them do their jobs. Without teaching them how to use them though, you’ll never get the most out of the tools—or your employees.

Just because something seems obvious to you, that doesn’t mean it is to everyone.

A one-day training session, a series of videos, or a knowledge base anyone can access ensures that everyone can learn in a way that works for them, at a time that works for them.

Creating a knowledgebase is also an important part of a top-notch digital employee experience program. Having somewhere people can refresh their memories means that they don’t get stuck going in circles when they can’t remember how to do something.

Lead by example

To get your employees to use a tool, you need to lead by example. Employees will follow the lead of others within your organization, and that starts at the top.

If you’re implementing a new tool as part of your digital employee experience program, get your leaders to show examples of what the tool can do. This will encourage employees to engage, get the conversation going, and increase the likelihood of employees logging in to use the tool.

Collect employee feedback

To know and understand how your employees feel about your digital employee experience program, it’s important to ask them. The tools they use should feel like a seamless part of their working day. You can’t fix what you don’t know is broken.

Sending feedback surveys to find out how they really feel will help you discern what’s working and what’s not, how well your tools really integrate, and if they’re actually making your employees’ lives easier.

Conclusion

Your digital employee experience program is key to your overall employee experience and employer brand. It can help you attract digitally native employees who are future-oriented, improving your hiring efforts and innovation within your business.

If you want to create a truly great digital employee experience program, check out Workrowd. You can use it to manage your employee experience initiatives, share updates with one click, and keep everything easily organized in one place. You can even automate employee surveys and analytics.

It’s the user-friendly engagement platform that encourages connection for everyone across your organization. Get in touch today to book your free demo.

8 ways to boost the value of your employee assistance program
The top talent engagement strategies to focus on in 2025
6 benefits of an effective digital employee experience program
Categories
Employee Experience

7 features to look for in an employee experience platform

The right employee experience platform can make your workers’ lives easier and things in your business run smoother. It can improve employee engagement by helping team members connect with each other. Plus, it can also help you understand what’s happening across your organization.

But what sorts of features should you look for?

The more features your employee experience platform has, the greater the difference it can make. But having too many tools can overcomplicate things. Then employees may not use the platform as much because it’s just too complex.

Likewise, if the tool has a steep learning curve, this can turn employees off. They’ll wind up wasting time figuring out how to use it instead of doing their jobs.

With employee experience being key to retention and hiring efforts, the right tools really can make all the difference.

So let’s explore what features you should look for in an employee experience platform:

Connect tools to reduce bloat

Having too many tools to use can become overwhelming for employees. It slows them down, and any new hires will have to spend more time learning how everything works. This can impact your onboarding time and how long it takes a new hire to reach peak productivity.

Not to mention employees may not use every tool that you have. This is especially true if a tool doesn’t integrate with the ones that are firmly a part of their working lives. Or if the new tool only has a couple of nice-to-have-features.

When your tools integrate with each other, or you use an employee experience platform that has multiple features, team members are far more likely to use and get more out of them.

Streamline communications

With an employee experience platform that streamlines communications, you can share news and information in multiple places with one click. That way, employees always know where to find what they need.

This ensures no one misses out on big announcements whether they’ve been on vacation, or they’re just overwhelmed by email.

Make engagement easier

One of the hardest parts about hosting events or training sessions is getting people to attend them. It’s easy to miss announcements that they’re happening or forget if an event requires filling in a lengthy sign-up form.

One-click signups for training programs or events ensures employees are more likely to register. It becomes a seamless process. Add in a dashboard on your employee experience platform where they can see that the event is coming up, as well as in their calendar, and you’ve got a recipe for success.

The event will stay front of mind and they’re far more likely to attend on the day. They’ll learn new skills, feel more engaged at work, and improve their sense of belonging.

Automate feedback requests

Remembering to send feedback surveys for employee milestones or after initiatives is easier said than done. It’s simple to forget when other priorities pile up. Or to send them so late that everyone has already forgotten the key insights that you actually need.

Being able to automate and streamline the feedback process for your HR teams gives them more time to deal with other employee queries. And to make changes based on the feedback they get.

This continuous feedback loop ensures that every initiative can be better than the last and exactly what your employees are looking for. It’s important to find an employee experience platform that can help enable this cycle.

Tap into real-time analytics

Sending employee feedback surveys is just one piece of the puzzle. You need to know what the results say so that you know what’s working and what isn’t.

An employee experience platform with real-time analytics gives you the insights you need to find out what’s happening with your employees right now.

That means you know how they’re feeling, how changes within the business affect them, and you can measure employee sentiment to look for changes over time.

These analyses are vital to preventing problems in the workplace from escalating into bigger issues that harm your employee experience and lead to disengagement.

Manage employee groups

Managing employee groups can be challenging if you don’t have a central place for communications, event coordination, and more. Sure, you could use a Slack channel, but it’s not designed for that. You’ll spend forever adding integrations to make it work how you want.

Not to mention if you organize an event, it won’t sync with someone’s calendar or show up somewhere they can easily find it once a date is chosen. So there’s the risk that they won’t block the time out in their calendar and may forget to attend.

The key to employee group management is an employee experience platform that enables members to connect effectively in as many ways as possible. This includes making it easy for them to talk about what matters to them. Plus, it should streamline organizing everything from a quiz to a cooking class to a lunch and learn.

Reach remote employees

While many businesses are returning to the office, there are still millions of people who work remotely. Why should they miss out?

Working remotely can be lonely. But it’s sometimes the only option for people with disabilities, caregivers, and parents. Or even just those who concentrate better in their own work environment.

It can be challenging to build a strong culture if not everyone works from the same place. If you use an employee experience platform like Workrowd, everyone can see what’s going on. Employees can launch their own initiatives wherever they are, and people leaders get insights into what’s having the most impact for employees who aren’t in the office full-time.

Employee experience with Workrowd

Workrowd has all these features and more. It enables your people leaders to organize, drive, and measure your company culture with our suite of events and community management tools.

HR leaders and executives can empower and support employees.

Employees can ask to create their own employee-led groups and programs, ensuring everyone from every level within your organization is engaged and invested in building a transparent, thriving company culture.

Want to find out how our employee experience platform can help drive more bottom line value for your business? Get in touch today to book your free demo.

8 ways to boost the value of your employee assistance program
The top talent engagement strategies to focus on in 2025
6 benefits of an effective digital employee experience program
Categories
Employee Retention

9 tips to design a stay interview process that drives retention

Less than a third of businesses include a stay interview in their employee lifecycle. That’s despite the fact that over half of leaving employees feel that their manager or employer could’ve done something to stop them from quitting.

This shows how little employers actually connect with their employees to find out how they feel about what’s happening in the business. 

Are they happy with their manager? Do they feel connected to the business direction and mission? Is there something that could make their job easier? 

These are simple questions that can solve huge problems—and save you a lot of money hiring and training new recruits.

So, how can you design a stay interview process that drives retention?

Interview someone from each department

While this can be time intensive, it’s one of the most effective ways to spot gaps in your business. 

Just because the sales team is happy, that doesn’t mean finance is. Just like every business has its own culture, so too does each department. The only way you’ll fully understand this is to connect with as many people as possible in the form of a stay interview.

(Read to the end for a way to streamline this process.)

Automate invites

Organizing times for everyone to connect can be almost as time-consuming as the stay interview itself. 

There are plenty of scheduling tools out there that you can use now that will automatically pull from the interviewer’s schedule, then offer those times to the interviewees. This can save hours of time responding to back-and-forth emails and reduces the likelihood that anyone gets double-booked.

Create a safe space

Employees need to feel comfortable being open and honest. Otherwise they either won’t want to be a part of the stay interview, or they won’t provide honest enough answers for them to be useful.

To create this psychological safety, you need to reassure employees anything they say is free from repercussions. And have a culture where employees believe you when you say it.

If you conduct the stay interview in person, be sure to hold it somewhere comfortable. A formal meeting room can be intimidating and change the atmosphere around the conversation compared to a café or a more informal meeting area with sofas and coffee tables.

The atmosphere sets the tone for the meeting, meaning the location you choose plays an important role in getting the best possible responses.

Allow for anonymity

Sometimes, no matter what your company culture is, employees will feel better if they can share their feedback anonymously. 

Perhaps they could provide comments in a written format rather than via an in-person or video stay interview. For instance, a survey could be less stressful than a live conversation.

Some people also find it easier to articulate their thoughts this way as they don’t have to think on the spot. A flexible format allows them to provide you with more useful answers.

Create more opportunities for feedback

The more chances you give employees to give you feedback, the more useful answers you’re going to get. 

Everyone thinks and expresses how they feel differently, which means while some people will be comfortable talking to you in person about how things really are in their working lives, others will not.

The more feedback opportunities you have, the more scalable the stay interview process becomes. Interviewing everyone isn’t scalable, but sending an automated employee feedback survey is.

We can help you with just that! Using Workrowd, you can set up an employee feedback survey to go out regularly, then we’ll analyze the results for you automatically. 

That way, you have more time to dig into the answers and make changes based on the results.

Consider who conducts the interview

If an employee gets along with their line manager, it makes sense for them to conduct the stay interview. 

But in some cases, employees simply won’t feel comfortable being that candid with the person they report to directly. 

If half of employees leave because of their manager, are they really going to be honest that they dislike how the team is run to the person responsible for the team culture?

It can therefore be helpful for other people to conduct these interviews, such as HR personnel or a manager from a different department. You could even bring in someone external if budget allows. The key is to find someone objective and not directly involved in what’s happening in the team.

Ask useful questions

Make sure the questions you ask allow you to collect genuinely useful information. Things like:

  • What do you enjoy about your job?
  • What would make your job easier?
  • How do you feel about employee recognition?
  • Would you like more training opportunities? If so, what would you like to learn?
  • What causes you to feel stressed or anxious about work?
  • How well do you get along with your team members?
  • How do you feel about your manager?

Understanding how employees feel about work and their colleagues will give you a well-rounded picture of what’s happening. This can help you spot problems early, giving you a better chance to take action before things spiral and become bigger issues.

Act on feedback

If you don’t take action based on the feedback employees provide, they won’t see the point in giving you any. 

Look for patterns in what employees say, and consider ways to change things that they feel aren’t working. This is one of the key steps to improving your company culture by incorporating a stay interview.

Conclusion

A stay interview is a simple yet effective way to boost your retention rates. It can also help you spot issues before they spiral into something larger that’s harder to deal with.

Collect regular employee feedback

Another great way to see how your employees really feel is by sending regular employee engagement surveys. Putting them together can be time-consuming and tricky, but with Workrowd, you can automate it! Better yet, we can analyze the results for you on the fly, giving you more time to support your employees. Get in touch today to book your free demo.

8 ways to boost the value of your employee assistance program
The top talent engagement strategies to focus on in 2025
6 benefits of an effective digital employee experience program
Categories
Employee Engagement

9 creative employee recognition ideas to accelerate engagement

A little recognition can go a long way towards improving company culture and employee morale. So if you’re looking for some creative employee recognition ideas, you’re on the right track.

An employee who’s received recognition is 63% more likely to stay for the next three to six months, while a lack of recognition and engagement contributes to 44% of employees quiet quitting and/or changing jobs.

Recognition is a great way to reinforce positive attitudes, behaviors, and habits—far more effective than punishing someone for doing something wrong or making a mistake.

92% of employees are more likely to repeat an action if they receive recognition for it.

And, to top it off, 40% of US employees would put more effort into their work if they received more recognition. That’s a lot of employees who feel undervalued and underappreciated. And therefore aren’t working as hard as they would with the right culture.

If you’re seeing this in your business, implementing some creative employee recognition ideas can help you turn the tide.

Do you have a culture of recognition?

Whether someone has landed a new client, built a product really quickly, worked especially hard on a new project, or something else, celebrating them should be a no-brainer. It makes them feel like a valued member of the team and like they belong at your organization.

At most of my previous roles, no one ever said thank you like they meant it. It was always a quick “thanks” at the end of the day/week, when someone was going home. It felt more like an add-on or a courtesy rather than something someone actually meant.

Those places simply didn’t have cultures where employees’ hard work was recognized. Or at the very least, vocalized well. In fact, some people in positions of leadership genuinely admitted to feeling uncomfortable giving praise. Not a great example to set, I’m sure you’ll agree.

There was never a high-five (virtual or in person) around a job well done. When someone said “thank you” it felt like an off-hand, mandatory comment. Asking someone if they were making a pot of coffee was often said with more enthusiasm.

On the other hand, I can tell that people at Workrowd genuinely mean “thanks” when they say it. 

How? 

It’s in how they say it. The language usage; the timing; the detail; the fact it’s not the same words every time.

Even employees who don’t read into language as much as a writer like me will pick up on subtle cues. 

And that will affect how they feel about work and how much you get out of them in the short- and long-term. So let’s get into some creative employee recognition ideas to help you delight your team.

9 creative employee recognition ideas

If you want to establish or reinforce a positive culture, how do you show your employees you appreciate them?

Here are 9 creative employee recognition ideas:

Shoutout channel

This is a simple one that anyone can do: create a channel on Slack or Teams, or dedicate a krowd on Workrowd to celebrating people’s hard work. And use it!

If the space is quiet, people may feel uncomfortable reviving it. If it’s used regularly, employees will be more likely to want to give their colleagues a shoutout. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.

It starts with managers leading by example: if they create a culture of virtual high-fives, employees will follow suit. This might start with employees reacting to the posts, then it can escalate to them posting their own shoutouts too.

As creative employee recognition ideas go, this one costs nothing and can pay real dividends.

Meeting shoutouts

If someone has done something particularly well for the team, why not give them a shoutout in a meeting?

Sure, they might get a bit bashful, but they’ve worked hard. Don’t they deserve for the rest of the team to know how great they are?

When it comes to creative employee recognition ideas, something as simple as verbal acknowledgement can go a long way.

A day off for their birthday

Giving employees a day off for their birthday shows that you value their time. Make it clear you don’t expect them to work on a day that should be spent how they want, not how their employer chooses.

Decorate their desk for their birthday

If you give employees a day off for their birthday, you can do this the day before or after.

Balloons, streamers, a sash or a hat are all fun ways to show employees you appreciate them. And of course, it makes for some fun social media content.

You could also get them their favorite treat for everyone to munch on and celebrate as another creative employee recognition ideas option.

Celebrate them on social media

If an employee uses social media, why not give them a shoutout?

You could put together a montage of some of their achievements (if you already take lots of photos/videos) or write something heartfelt about the difference they make to the team.

Don’t just do this when someone is leaving! By then it’s too late.

Instead, use it to celebrate milestone achievements, special occasions, or even have an “employee of the week” feature where you celebrate someone different each week. These types of creative employee recognition ideas can make team members feel truly special.

Offer sabbaticals

Even if employees love their roles, that doesn’t mean they don’t still need a break sometimes. But it can be scary to go on a long-term break if you don’t know that you’ll have a job when you get back.

Allowing employees the chance to take a sabbatical shows them that you understand how hard they work, that they deserve a break, and that you value them enough to want them to come back after they’ve recharged.

It’s one of the creative employee recognition ideas that will truly set you apart from the competition.

Give extra PTO to long-term employees

Why not reward your long-term employees with extra days off based on how long they’ve worked with you?

This could help with retention too, as employees will want to stay to get the extra paid time off. Plus, those who’ve got it won’t want to give it up.

Offer training opportunities 

Employees understand better than ever that learning is a lifelong pursuit if they want to be at the forefront of their industry.

More than half want to develop skills that will put them in a better position for new opportunities in their current role, but only 32% are satisfied with their employer’s L&D perks. 

39% will likely leave within a year for a role with better learning opportunities. So if you’re not implementing creative employee recognition ideas that support your team’s future development, you’re risking high turnover and expensive hiring costs.

Connect employees with their colleagues

Work can be isolating, especially for underrepresented talent or people working at home.

Connecting employees with their colleagues using a platform like Workrowd helps them network, learn new skills, and discover new opportunities. It’s a powerful tool in your employee recognition and retention arsenal.

Get in touch to book your free demo and find out more.

Conclusion

Employee appreciation doesn’t have to involve grand gestures. But implementing some creative employee recognition ideas to show your team that you value them giving you their time and energy each day helps keep them motivated to serve you and your customers.

Ready to put some of these creative employee recognition ideas into action? Workrowd has the tools you need to make it a breeze. From setting up a dedicated space for recognition to monitoring employee feedback with automated surveys, you can do more in less time.

Which frees you to come up with even more creative employee recognition ideas. Drop us a note to schedule some time to talk at hello@workrowd.com today.

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The top talent engagement strategies to focus on in 2025
6 benefits of an effective digital employee experience program
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Employee Engagement

Tips to set your internal communications strategy up for success

It’s easy to miss what’s happening at work when you’ve been sick, on vacation, or just busy. It isn’t always easy to catch up. That’s where a good internal communications strategy comes in.

Employees can struggle to stay in the loop when announcements are only shared via email or over chat and they have a ton of messages to read, let alone reply to.

75% of employees feel they miss out on company news because their employer has no internal communications department. Or they do and the department doesn’t deliver what they need.

Which isn’t surprising: 60% of companies have no long-term internal communications strategy.

This isn’t in line with what employees want. 44% want companies to adopt internal communications tools and 75% feel socially isolated. 

A better internal communications strategy can’t solve social isolation, but it can help lessen it. It can make employees feel more like a part of a team and like they’re working towards something bigger than them.

So how can you improve your internal communications strategy and set it up for success? Let’s dive in:

Be transparent

How much do you share with your employees about what’s happening in your business?

Do you share numbers like monthly profit or churn?

Sharing this information can help employees visualize what’s happening and help motivate them to reach team and company goals.

It’s important to be honest if things are going badly just as much as if they’re going well. This puts things into context as well as acting as a motivator.

Open communication is also good for employee morale. In fact, a third of employees said that a lack of it had the most negative impact on employee morale. Which means a solid internal communications strategy can make a big difference.

Send digital updates regularly

Setting a regular cadence around your internal communications strategy is also important. If employees know when to expect updates from you, they can more easily keep an eye out for them. If you send them sporadically, your updates are far more likely to get lost in the noise.

For example, you could set a schedule of updating every Monday morning. That way, the news is in someone’s inbox when they start work for the week, or shortly after when they’ve caught up on their weekend emails.

Keep it relevant

If there isn’t much to report, don’t ramble on for the sake of sending an update. Respect employees’ time and say there isn’t anything new to report.

In most cases, there will be something, whether that’s progress on a new deal, customers churning, people starting/leaving a role, or upcoming public holidays and how that will affect them (for instance if they get the day off). Your internal communications strategy should cover all of these elements.

Create an internal knowledge base

It can take up to eight months for employees to reach full productivity when they start a new role. They have a lot to learn about your offerings and ways of operating. Plus, they have many people to get to know. Because of that, your internal communications strategy can’t just focus on outreach.

If you want to shorten employees’ ramp-up process, an internal knowledge base where they can get FAQs answered is key and will make onboarding faster for your new hires and their managers. 

It also removes the embarrassment that comes from asking what can feel like basic questions. In addition, it ensures that the information people need is written down in an easy-to-find location.

New hires are also great for helping you spot gaps in your knowledge base. Be sure to ask them if there’s anything they’d add to it.

Have regular meetings

Even with frequent email or chat outreach, there’s still the possibility people will miss your updates. Covering them in a company-wide meeting means as many people will hear your message as possible.

These regular check-ins humanize leadership so that they don’t feel untouchable. Instead, they’re more approachable like other colleagues.

This ties back into being open and honest. You can only do that if you’re routinely sharing updates with your employees about what’s going on in the business in line with your internal communications strategy.

Track your success metrics

The only way you can be sure that your internal communications strategy works is if you have the right data. What do you want to track?

It could be your employee engagement metrics and how sharing news affects them; how often employees share about the company on social media; how comfortable employees feel coming to you with issues; the percentage of employees who fill in your feedback surveys.

Remember: just because you don’t get negative feedback, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. It might mean that employees don’t feel comfortable coming to you with their problems. In that case you have a serious employee experience challenge to tackle.

Use Workrowd

Workrowd can help you and your employees connect more easily. You can ensure you’re sending messages out to the right groups; keep every document and announcement they need in one place; and automate surveys to collect feedback. Not only does that cut down on unnecessary messages, but even if someone misses an email or social media post for whatever reason, they can still find all the information they need with just a couple clicks.

We can also help you track the impact of your employee programs, groups, and events with real-time analytics. That way you can act on the results—and improve your employee experience—faster.

Want to find out more? Get in touch today to book your free demo.

Conclusion

Your internal communications strategy plays a huge role in employee engagement and morale. It ensures people know what’s happening and means they can better prepare for what’s ahead, whether that’s positive or negative.

Knowing what’s happening within the business and wider industry is also a motivating factor for many people. Meaning it can help you get more from your workforce.

If you’d like to get better results from your internal communications strategy, why not try Workrowd? We can help you more effectively share updates with your team, collect feedback, and so much more. Visit us online to see how we can partner to deliver more value for your employees with less stress.

8 ways to boost the value of your employee assistance program
The top talent engagement strategies to focus on in 2025
6 benefits of an effective digital employee experience program
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Employee Experience

5 questions to help resolve a big employee experience challenge

The complexity of today’s world of work can make it feel like as soon as you overcome one employee experience challenge, another one rears its head. Staying focused on employee engagement through it all is crucial for your attraction and retention efforts.

The cost of low employee engagement is $450-500 billion per year. On the flip side, good company culture quadruples revenue. This goes to show just how much the way employees feel about their jobs really matters.

When you find yourself with an employee experience challenge, it’s important to explore what’s going on and look at ways to fix it. Otherwise, you risk not just losing employees, but increasing disengagement among those who remain.

So let’s explore the questions you should ask when facing an employee experience challenge.

What do you think is wrong?

If you feel your company has an employee engagement problem, it’s time to be honest with yourself. Consider what’s happening.

Has there been a change of leadership that’s left people feeling uncertain?

Have there been layoffs that have made people fearful for their jobs? Or perhaps their workload has changed as a result of the cuts and they’re struggling?

Could it be that they feel their work isn’t valued, or that their manager takes credit for what they do? A little thank you goes a long way—37% of employees feel recognition is important. But how many of them actually get the recognition they want or deserve?

Or, could it be that your employees are bored? The main reason a third of people leave their roles is boredom. Boredom can come from work feeling too repetitive, not having enough to do, or a lack of satisfaction/purpose.

It’s important to provide employees with regular training and career advancement opportunities. That way they can learn new skills to benefit them in the workplace and prevent boredom or another employee experience challenge.

What do employees really think?

You can’t make changes until you know what employees really think.

While an open-door policy sounds nice, the truth is that most employees will never use it. Even if they have a concern. They may be afraid of negative consequences, or simply lack the confidence to advocate for themselves.

Many employees have worked in places where “open-door” policies didn’t actually create a safe space for raising issues. Or they believe that HR is only there to protect the business, not support employees.

If they’ve had those experiences or hold those beliefs, why would they speak up about an employee experience challenge?

If you really want to know what’s going on, you need to actively reach out to employees and ask them. And provide a safe place for them to respond.

How can you collect honest feedback?

It doesn’t matter how open your culture is; there will be some opinions employees will feel more comfortable sharing anonymously. This is especially true if they’re female, a person of color, or early in their career.

The potential backlash for underrepresented talent in the workplace is huge, no matter how many times managers or colleagues seek to reassure them. We’ve all been there or heard a horror story.

It’s therefore important to find a way to collect honest feedback. The best way is with an anonymized feedback survey.

When employees can share their opinions anonymously, they don’t have to worry as much about anything they say coming back to bite them unless they share something identifiable, such as the team they work in.

How can you fix things?

Now that you know what’s happening, it’s time to look at how to fix the problem.

Change doesn’t happen overnight, which means you can’t resolve an employee experience challenge overnight.

But what you can do is demonstrate to employees that you’re listening.

This could be through asking in a survey what you could do better, sharing the results of the survey, and/or listing actions that you plan to take based on the survey.

There’s no magic fix for anything. But the sooner you analyze your survey results and take action, the sooner you can get your employee experience challenge sorted and get back on track.

How can you prevent this from happening again?

It’s all very well and good finding out what’s wrong. But does knowing what’s wrong really matter if you don’t take steps to prevent it from happening again?

Going around in circles with your employee experience challenge will lead to frustration and disengagement among employees. This will inevitably lead to them leaving, which means you risk losing your top performers.

Setting up ERGs where employees can connect with their colleagues can help to combat loneliness and boost belonging.

While this may sound like a small or trivial thing, it really can make a huge difference to an employee’s mental health, and therefore their productivity.

If you’d like to get the most from your ERGs—and your employees—Workrowd can help. Streamline marketing, management, and measurement for your groups so that they can drive real business impact. Contact us to find out more.

Conclusion

An employee experience challenge can be difficult to identify and fix, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to solve.

It requires listening to your employees’ concerns and taking active steps to address them so that they know you’re listening and value both their feedback and the time they spend working for you.

Get the feedback you need to solve your employee experience challenge

Workrowd can help you keep a pulse on your employee experience with automated feedback surveys and real-time analytics. Meaning you can adapt to any employee experience challenge before it spirals. Plus, you’ll get more time to solve issues and prevent further problems.

If you want to find out more, visit us online to get in touch and book your free demo.

8 ways to boost the value of your employee assistance program
The top talent engagement strategies to focus on in 2025
6 benefits of an effective digital employee experience program
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Employee Experience

6 areas where HR process automation and AI can save you time

Do you ever feel like there just aren’t enough hours in the day? HR process automation could be your ticket to getting more done with less stress.

The most time-consuming tasks are often the most repetitive ones that don’t require a ton of thought. 73% of HR’s day gets taken up by these types of tasks. This obviously leaves less time to have meaningful interactions with team members or to innovate on providing a better employee experience.

Half of the work done in today’s age can be automated, yet only 37% commonly is.

HR process automation can help you improve employee engagement, save money, and get more done in less time.

In fact, companies that embraced HR process automation saved 90% of the time they spent on admin tasks.

Let’s explore some areas where HR process automation could save you time:

Drafting/reviewing job descriptions for biases

I want to caveat this point with something before I dive in: it’s really risky to get AI to write something then not have a human editor look at it. Or to publish a job description without checking it for biases using an AI tool.

Firstly, because we’re not aware of our own unconscious biases; that’s why they’re unconscious.

Secondly, because AI is prone to mistakes and has its own biases.

Job descriptions are a vital part of the hiring process. In fact, they can make or break it. Leveraging HR process automation by using a role description generator, or AI for analysis, can help you spot gaps and biases that creep in.

AI can offer suggestions to reduce it and attract the best talent for your organization.

Analyzing resumes

Analyzing resumes is time-consuming. The right HR process automation tool can analyze them once they come in and compare them against your job descriptions.

However, these tools can sometimes look past neurodivergent candidates or those who fall just outside of the criteria you set but may still be great hires. 

They can also mimic the biases of the people who create them or set them up. So, it’s important to keep an eye on how the tool is designed and occasionally check through what’s been submitted for a diamond in the rough.

If a candidate receives a rejection too fast this can also come across as impersonal and make them not want to work for your organization. So keep that in mind when configuring how the tool responds.

A friend of mine once applied for a role one evening and had a rejection in his inbox by 6am the following morning. It was pretty clear this was automated, and it made him not want to work for the organization. Even if the perfect role for him had come up later, he wouldn’t reapply to work for that employer. 

Candidates want the personal touch and to not feel like just another number in the application process. So there needs to be balance when it comes to HR process automation.

Interview and meeting scheduling

Interview scheduling takes far too much time. It becomes even more complicated if you’re organizing panel interviews or group interviews.

Using an interview scheduling tool as part of your HR process automation, either on its own or as part of your recruitment tool, can save hours each week.

It also helps you provide a better candidate experience, making those going through the interview process more likely to want to work with you.

Bonus points: the right tool could help you organize meetings with colleagues, too. This could save time and effort scheduling important meetings with multiple people from different teams.

So then collaboration between colleagues and teams becomes easier, more efficient, and more effective as well.

Payroll and benefits

Automated payroll systems can calculate salaries, taxes, and other deductions alongside any compliance or regulation changes or challenges.

It can also help you organize and calculate benefits.

As well as saving time, this type of HR process automation can reduce the errors that come from a more manual process. And make certain that everything happens on time.

These then help you provide a better, more consistent employee experience that ensures everyone gets paid the right amount on the right date. That way, they don’t have to worry if they’ll have enough money in their account when their bills come due.

HR support

Ever feel like you’re repeating yourself, answering the same questions over and over?

An AI chatbot can be a great option for HR process automation. It can save you time by answering common HR questions. 

It can also help you provide a better onboarding experience by answering new hire questions. By helping with any queries new employees may feel embarrassed to ask, it makes them more likely to feel supported. It also helps them get up to speed with how things work in your organization more quickly.

Employee learning and development

Learning management tools can help your employees grow their skills on their own time. This means they’re more likely to retain the information as they’re learning when they’re in the best frame of mind to do so.

HR process automation can assist with delivering trainings to the right people, recommending courses to employees, and suggesting employees to managers who might be ready to progress in their careers.

AI tools can also offer a quick way for employees to get answers to their problems, saving them time perusing search engines and social media.

Conclusion 

HR process automation and AI tools are useful to help overworked HR teams get more done.

However, you can’t AI-generate the personal interactions you have with candidates or employees.

In a world that feels dominated by AI, we need to find real ways to communicate with each other and embrace our humanity.

Create connections in your organization

Employee groups, programs, and events are a great way to connect people within your organization. Colleagues can bond over what’s happening at work, things they enjoy, and their personal lives.

Workrowd can help you manage your employee initiatives so that you and your team get the most out of them. You can measure how well they’re performing, organize files and resources, and keep everything readily available in one central place.

Want to find out more? Visit us online and get in touch to book your free demo.

8 ways to boost the value of your employee assistance program
The top talent engagement strategies to focus on in 2025
6 benefits of an effective digital employee experience program
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Learning & Development

5 ways to build financial literacy for employees

A PwC Financial Wellness survey found that finances are the largest source of stress for 54% of people. Since stressed people are less productive at work, building financial literacy for employees is important to your organization’s success.

What’s more, when you factor in that just 33% of the global population is financially literate according to the World Economic Forum, the stress levels really aren’t surprising.

Part of the problem is that many of us don’t learn financial literacy at school or from family members. Which means if we don’t actively seek to learn more about how to manage our finances, we never will.

But it isn’t that simple.

The sheer amount of information available around financial literacy can be overwhelming. This can cause people to end up even more confused than they were to begin with.

While it isn’t an employer’s job to offer financial literacy for employees, it can be an opportunity to support them in a way that drives business results. Consider it a perk that sets them up for a happier, more stable future.

It’s also a way to show employees that you value them. And that you understand the importance of education and financial literacy for employees—even if you’re not a financial organization.

Plus, it can reinforce or create a culture of learning, inspiring employees to think differently and explore new skills and topics.

And, according to Harvard Business Review, when employees are financially literate, it can help them at work to:

  • Make business decisions
  • Have a better understanding of how expenses impact a company’s profit and loss and balance sheet
  • Design budgets
  • Understand how their actions impact the business, and how they can improve the organization’s financial health

It’s little things like these that can add up to a more sound, stable, organization.

How to build financial literacy for employees in your organization

So, we’ve looked at why financial literacy for employees is important. Now let’s explore how you can build it across your organization:

Set up an employee group to talk money

When you have an employee group designed specifically for people to talk finances, it creates a safe space for discussion. So team members can share what’s going on with them, how they feel, and ask questions.

It creates somewhere people feel comfortable talking about money. This helps break down barriers when money is still seen as a taboo discussion topic.

Need help managing your employee groups? Or want to get more out of them? Workrowd has your back!

Get in touch to discover how we can help and book your free demo today.

Organize a training day

A one-off training session that any team member can sign up for is a great way to build financial literacy for employees. Sessions can cover everything from basic concepts to more advanced money management.

It gets employees in the mindset of thinking about their finances without distractions from their everyday work.

Organize a lunch and learn

On the other hand, a full day might be overwhelming for some. A shorter session, or a lunch and learn, gives them the option to learn without bombarding them with tons of information in a short space of time.

If it’s a series of sessions around financial literacy for employees, they can pick just the topics that are relevant or interesting to them. This ensures they don’t waste their time but still get to learn.

Bring in an expert

Getting a financial advisor or certified financial planner to come in and talk about financial literacy for employees allows them to talk to someone objective and experienced.

Ideally you want someone who’s neutral and doesn’t promote their own services or tools. That can lead to slippery slopes like encouraging employees to use an investment platform when they’re not ready.

Someone more neutral can outline the good and bad of all options and strategies. This helps employees make more informed decisions. They can also answer employees’ questions without a biased point of view, offering them support without a sales angle.

Recommend resources like books or podcasts

Everyone learns differently. Books, podcasts, video training sessions, or even vlogs can help improve financial literacy for employees on their own schedule. 

They could then discuss the book or podcast’s content in the financial literacy employee group with their colleagues.

Here are a couple of books to get you started:

I Will Teach You To Be Rich – Ramit Sethi

Ramit approaches finance with humor, writing in plain English and laying things out in a clear, easy-to-understand way. He also has versions of the book adapted for different audiences by country.

Girls Just Wanna Have Funds – Anna-Sophie Hartvigsen, Camilla Falkenberg and Emma Due Bitz

Women earn, on average, 23% less than men. This equates to almost $400,000 dollars lost over the course of their lifetimes. This book looks at how managing money is different for women and how they can make the most of their funds.

Ask employees

When you understand how employees think and learn, you can better adapt to their needs.

The best way to learn what they need from you is to ask them. 

Consider sending an employee survey asking about financial literacy for employees; what they know, what they’d like to learn, and how they learn best. That then ensures you can tailor the training to them. Rather than presenting them with something that isn’t the right fit for the people in your organization.

If you create a learning module that isn’t the right fit for them, they’re less likely to use it. At that point, you’ll have wasted your investment.

Conclusion

Investing in financial literacy for employees doesn’t have to be expensive. It can be a benefit that helps your people grow at work and beyond. It can reduce their stress levels and therefore make them more productive at work.

Their financial literacy levels can also impact their decision-making skills and, in the process, your budget.

Investing in their skills now will pay you (and them) dividends in the future.

Ready to level up and deliver more when it comes to financial literacy for employees? Workrowd has the tools you need.

Visit us online to learn how our all-in-one platform makes it easy to launch and manage employee groups, track the impact of training sessions, and deliver a world-class employee experience with less stress.

Questions? Feel free to email us directly at hello@workrowd.com.

8 ways to boost the value of your employee assistance program
The top talent engagement strategies to focus on in 2025
6 benefits of an effective digital employee experience program