Category: Employee Engagement

Check out part 1 of this post covering signs your employee engagement programs need a makeover HERE. When you’re running successful employee engagement programs, it can have huge benefits for your business. In the new world of work, these efforts that used to be ‘nice to haves’ have quickly become ‘need to haves’.

But what makes for successful employee engagement programs? And how do you know whether yours are driving results? Here are some things to look out for:

Employees want to join in

When employees want to be a part of your programs, it’s a really good sign. It means they feel like your programs could make a difference to their lives, either personally or professionally.

Another sign of successful employee engagement programs is when people share their enthusiasm with their colleagues. This excitement is contagious and can spread the word without you needing to do as much promotion.

The more everyone talks about the benefits of participating, the more employees you’ll have who want to join in. People don’t like to feel like they’re missing out and will want to experience the benefits, too.

Everyone has a community where they belong

72% of employees feel lonely at least once per month. The same percentage of remote workers feel lonelier than they did when they worked in an office.

As well as being a sad statistic, the truth is that it’s also scary and dangerous. Loneliness is bad for our mental and physical health. It causes everything from anxiety, to a weakened immune system, to an increased risk of heart disease and diabetes.

Most people probably won’t admit to their colleagues that they feel this way. They may not even realize the impact their loneliness could have on their long-term health.

Even without these discussions or this awareness though, successful employee engagement programs help mitigate workplace loneliness. People can find colleagues nearby to chat over coffee with; pet sit so that they can travel more; or co-work together in a local space. 

All these things help employees feel more connected to their teammates and organization, reducing the detrimental impacts of loneliness.

Employee program leaders aren’t drowning in admin work

There may be some people out there who like admin work (I’m not one of them). Regardless, there’s no denying how much it can eat into your time and mean you produce less as a result.

Reducing admin time for employee program leaders gives them more time and energy for their daily tasks while still championing engagement. With the right tools, they can do more in less time, and avoid burning out.

So instead of manually sending reminders about the next event, they can plan interesting discussions, connect with other engagement leaders, or get to know participants better. When tedious, time-consuming tasks are automated, it’s much easier to build successful employee engagement programs.

There’s a clear transition process in place

It’s common when a program or group leader leaves for things to fall apart. A successful employee engagement programs management solution means this doesn’t happen. It ensures there are already steps in place to facilitate a handover, and to make it as seamless as possible.

One thing you can do to help with this is create a list of potential leaders to step in when someone leaves. Or, you could always have a deputy leader who’s the natural next person to fill the position.

Whomever takes over needs to know where all the files are and have permission to access/edit them.

They also need access to any policies or documents which explain how the program or group operates. That way, they’ll know what’s expected of them as a leader and of group members, and can update things if/when required.

Having a central repository can go a long way towards helping you build successful employee engagement programs. That way, leaders, participants, and executives all know exactly where to look when they need something.

Every aspect is intuitive and user-friendly

The most important thing about a great user experience is that it just works. It’s so perfectly organized and logical that people barely have to think about it.

This is sometimes easier said than done, but when employees know where to find the latest information, they can log in to get what they want, maybe find something else that’s also of interest to them, then continue with their day.

It’s simple, it’s intuitive, and it allows them to make the most of your successful employee engagement programs with the least amount of effort.

What’s more, it doesn’t interrupt them. Rather than receiving emails and chat notifications about a free fitness class while trying to focus on a big project, they can learn what’s happening when it’s convenient for them.

They offer people opportunities to develop their skills

Many employees are always on the lookout for ways to improve their skills, grow in their roles, and advance their careers. If they don’t feel they can do that at your organization, they’re more likely to leave.

Successful employee engagement programs provide team members who want to grow their skills access to relevant training. They can also connect them to mentors or coaches. 

They improve communication

When you encourage employees to interact with people from other areas of the business, it can improve relationships between different departments. 

This makes collaboration much easier. It also helps prevent us vs. them mentalities and myths that can occur between different departments.

Successful employee engagement programs build cross-team links that ensure your business can stay agile and competitive.

You can track their effectiveness

If you want successful employee engagement programs, it’s important to be able to track their effectiveness. That’s how you know what you’re doing is benefitting your business and your staff. 

Without any trackable metrics, your programs could be a huge waste of time and money. You wouldn’t know it, though, because you would have no way of measuring.

With metrics, you can clearly see what’s working and what isn’t. It’s important that you’re pulling information from a variety of sources and at different points in time. Relying on a once or twice yearly engagement survey won’t get you the data you need.

With automated, real-time analytics, you always know which programs are driving results, and which need some extra support. You can then use that information to make more informed decisions and maximize your ROI.

They benefit your business

The most successful employee engagement programs benefit businesses in ways both big and small. 

They lead to employees being happier and more productive because they feel like you care about them beyond daily workplace activities. It’s a reciprocal relationship. And the more you foster that relationship, the more success you’ll both experience.

If you’re interested in building more successful employee engagement programs this year, Workrowd can help. With a one-stop shop for marketing, managing, and measuring all of your programs, groups, and events, everything you need is right at your fingertips.

Send us a note at hello@workrowd.com to learn more. We’d love to discuss how some easy-to-implement tools can take your employee engagement programs to the next level in 2023.

8 strategies to boost employee attraction and retention in 2024

How to cultivate empathy at work—and why it matters

5 overlooked causes of employee disengagement

From professional development to diversity and inclusion, employee engagement programs are key to retention. Beyond that, they’re also a powerful, underutilized tool that can benefit almost every area of your business.

Unfortunately, it’s easy to set up employee engagement programs with the best intentions, only to get distracted by other tasks. As a result, they never reach their full potential and fail to drive ROI. 

Or, they’re implemented and nobody even knows they’re a thing. Obviously, in this case, no one gets to experience any of the benefits.

Here are some key signs your employee engagement programs need a makeover in 2023. Check back next week for what to do about it!

No one uses them—or even knows they exist

Maybe your employee engagement programs have lots of people signed up, but nobody’s engaged. Or nobody joins them in the first place. Either way, this is problematic.

Ineffective employee engagement programs can have a tremendous impact on a person’s ability to feel like part of the team. Beyond that, it can even have a detrimental effect on their career trajectory. 

It’s a story the Workrowd team has heard all too often. The company’s founder, Rachel Goor, notes:

“Especially in remote and hybrid environments, it’s easy for employees to miss out on opportunities to build a better work life. For instance, we recently learned about an individual who found out three years into her tenure with a company that there was a mentoring program she could have joined from day one. She was burned out and ended up leaving, but tapping into this great initiative that the company was already running could have completely transformed her experience.”

Three years of growth missed out on all because no one connected her to a program that already existed.

Running them is detrimental to leaders’ careers

If you have employee engagement programs led by team members (e.g. ERGs), supporting them is crucial.

Running any sort of community is a huge commitment and can really eat into their time. Trying to do that alongside their full-time job makes things even more challenging. Either their program or their job suffers.

And of course, this could lead to adverse outcomes for these engagement champions. It leaves them less time for their job responsibilities, despite their significant contributions to company culture.

Rachel noted another example where:

“An employee was so passionate about social impact efforts that she took it upon herself to personally spearhead things for two years. She, too, ended up leaving, because the company had no way to support or empower her.”

It must’ve been heartbreaking for that individual to put everything into building opportunities for her colleagues to give back, positively influence the company’s culture, but then have to leave because her personal development suffered as a result.

Things fall apart when someone leaves

At some point, a leader or champion of one or more of your employee engagement programs is going to leave. It may be because they’ve found an opportunity elsewhere, they’re moving, or they’re retiring. If there’s no handover process in place, it can cause programs to fall apart.

This can come down to poor organization or limited knowledge transfer. Your program then falters and has to start again from scratch, if at all. This leaves a lot of opportunities and potentially disappointed employees behind.

Even if your program has seen high engagement up to this point, it’s unlikely things will stay that way if no one is trained to take over and they don’t know where to find all the information they need. 

Any initiative’s atmosphere is directly influenced by the people running it. The only way to maintain that is for a new leader to hit the ground running when they take over.

You’re not effectively tracking their impact

It’s really important to have some form of data collection. Without it, you won’t know what’s working, what’s not, and where you can improve. How do you know what difference your employee engagement programs are making? More importantly, how do you know where to invest your time and money moving forward?

It doesn’t just have to be hard numbers, of course. Anecdotes about employees’ improved confidence, skills, or new contacts they’ve met because of employee engagement programs can be just as powerful. 

But if there’s nowhere for them to share those stories, how will you ever hear about them?

You don’t market or promote them 

Quite often, you think you’re talking a lot about something, but nobody has heard you talk about it at all. This is common when you work in marketing, and marketing internal initiatives is no different. 

So, while you may think you’re shouting, only a handful of people have probably heard about your employee engagement programs.

You need to actively promote your initiatives to new employees, as well as existing employees looking for something new. Promote them in as many places as possible, including in print, by word-of-mouth, and beyond.

Employees may not join the first time they hear about a group, program, or event. Over time though, they may change their minds.

They may realize the benefits of being a part of them and want to join in, too. Therefore, you need to talk about your employee engagement programs and their benefits as much as possible to encourage participation.

The organizational system is a mess

When employee engagement programs are managed manually, it makes the whole process clunkier. Almost every other part of our lives can be automated now. Employees expect a seamless experience for groups and events at work just as they do in their outside lives. Are you delivering?

Tasks like signing up, sharing files, organizing meetings, RSVPing for events, and sending reminders should be as easy as possible. This is true for both program leaders and for members and participants as well. This only happens when there’s a clear, easy-to-follow system in place.

Lack of regionalization/localization

What appeals to someone in one country will be different from what appeals to someone in another. Even countries that speak the same language can have dramatic cultural differences. (Like the US and the UK, for example.)

Being aware of these differences is important.

It’s also important to consider that some employees will prefer to meet in person. If they work remotely, it’s a great opportunity for them to get out of the house and connect with people.

Insufficient support/buy-in from the company 

It’s all too easy for a company to decide to launch employee engagement programs, give employees the chance to run them, then abandon them, expecting employees to do all the work. 

Your programs still need some sort of support from the business for them to be a success. 

Many aspects of culture come from the top, and this includes the adoption of employee engagement programs. That’s the only way businesses will experience the full benefits of them.

If initiatives are left with small or non-existent budgets, or a disengaged/non-existent executive sponsor, they’re unlikely to deliver the results you’d hoped for.

Conclusion

An effective employee engagement programs strategy can lead to positive changes in employees’ skills, networks, and career paths. 

However, when they’re done wrong, they can feel like a waste of time and resources for everyone.

If you’d like to ensure you’re maximizing the value of your employee engagement programs in 2023, Workrowd can help. Tune in next week for a post on solutions. Or, reach out to us directly to explore easy-to-implement tools to solve your engagement challenges.

Our one-stop platform has everything you need to successfully market, manage, and measure your employee engagement programs to drive greater impact. Learn more by visiting us online, or send us a note at hello@workrowd.com.

Check out part 2 of this post covering solutions to improve the effectiveness of your employee engagement programs HERE.

8 strategies to boost employee attraction and retention in 2024

How to cultivate empathy at work—and why it matters

5 overlooked causes of employee disengagement

We all like to feel we’re a part of something. Employee clubs are a great way to build this experience of belonging for every team member at your organization.

Community is incredibly powerful. Studies have proven human connection is one of the key ingredients to a longer, happier life. On the flip side, loneliness can shorten one’s lifespan and exacerbate chronic illnesses.

There’s no reason why someone’s job can’t give them a sense of belonging or contribute to their sense of community. This sadly isn’t always the case, though. 

Many businesses don’t feel the need to set up or encourage any sort of employee clubs or groups. They also don’t encourage employee socialization or connection. 

This may be because of financial reasons, not understanding the benefits, or not feeling it contributes enough to the bottom line to be worth the extra effort.

But employee clubs can be an easy way to encourage colleagues to connect with one another, leading to many benefits. 

Here are some of the reasons why employee clubs should be one of HR’s favorite tools:

Improved retention

When someone feels like they belong at work, they’re more likely to stay long-term. 

Employee clubs are a great way for people to connect with colleagues who share their interests or backgrounds and whom they may not have met otherwise, especially in a larger organization.

The slower your employee turnover, the more money you’ll save on the often lengthy and expensive hiring process. That gives you more money to spend on other areas of HR and the rest of the business.

Better employee mental health

Community and belonging play huge roles in someone’s mental health. This is true both in terms of helping them if they’re feeling isolated, lonely, or anxious, and when it comes to protecting their mental wellbeing.

An employee may not always feel like they can talk to their teammates, or their teammates may not understand their situation. If there are employee clubs where people can share experiences, it can connect them with someone who gets what they’re going through and can listen and offer advice if desired.

Fewer sick days

As I mentioned in the introduction, community is good for both our physical and mental health. 

Community can be a motivational tool which encourages us to get up and moving. This prevents our joints from seizing up and causing issues like back pain. Back pain is actually one of the biggest reasons for sick leave in the US.

As physical and emotional pain are processed in the same part of the brain, the amygdala, the suppression of emotions can lead to chronic pain conditions such as fibromyalgia or migraines. This is also why one of the symptoms of depression is random aches and pains.

When someone has people who understand them and are willing to listen, they’re less likely to bottle up their issues. As a result, it’s less likely to manifest in their body as chronic pain.

Develop the right mindset

Connecting with people to whom you relate, but who may be at a more advanced stage of their career, can really help someone to grow their mindset. 

Mindsets are contagious. If you’re hanging around pessimists all the time, chances are you’re going to adopt a more negative outlook, too. 

The same is true if you hang around people who are uplifting, optimistic, and hardworking. 

If someone is a chronic complainer, connecting them to a mindfulness club, or someone who’s got a brighter outlook, could be all they need to see the world from a different angle.

Grow their skills

Every employee has a unique set of skills just waiting to be shared with other people within your business. Employee clubs allow them to show off their skills.

If someone is feeling bored in their role, employee clubs could help them develop new skills. These could then allow them to move into another department. That way you don’t lose their existing business knowledge. Plus, you won’t need to hire someone new, train them in the role, and teach them about your business, a process which can take several months at a minimum.

Better interdepartmental connections

Some departments traditionally have fractured or non-existent relationships, like accounting and marketing. 

When employees connect with others who are outside of their department, it can lead to better interdepartmental connections and collaborations. It can abolish any previous tensions that may have existed between the two teams. 

This benefits everything from problem solving to product launches, leading to better teamwork and a greater sense of community within your business as a whole, as well as in the individual employee clubs.

More attractive to candidates

While money is always a big factor when someone is job hunting, it’s no longer the biggest one. Senses of purpose and belonging matter just as much, if not more.

Sharing details of the employee clubs that exist can be a real selling point to people who are looking not just for a place to work, but for a place to create connections and develop their skills.

You could do this on social media, in the job description, or even in marketing emails. 

It helps if any social media content is shared by employees from their account, rather than from a branded page. Employees have a much larger reach and are seen as more trustworthy than what is often a faceless brand.

Greater productivity

Who doesn’t love productive employees?

When someone feels a greater sense of belonging, they’re happier in their role, and they’re therefore more productive, too. 

This reflects well on all areas of the business, and of course, generates more income. 

You can therefore grow faster thanks to the additional revenue from having more productive employees and a lower churn rate.

Conclusion 

Employee clubs can benefit every area of a business, from attraction to retention to employee productivity and experience. Setting them up and keeping them running doesn’t have to be a complicated process, either. 

Workrowd’s lightweight platform makes it easy to market, manage, and measure all your employee clubs. From professional development to social impact, and from recreation to diversity and inclusion, our suite of tools empowers you to meet a wide range of employee needs.

If you’re curious to learn more and see if Workrowd is a fit for your organization, send a note to hello@workrowd.com. We’d love to learn more about your goals and discuss ways to increase engagement, retention, and belonging with employee clubs.

8 strategies to boost employee attraction and retention in 2024

How to cultivate empathy at work—and why it matters

5 overlooked causes of employee disengagement

There are a lot of HR tech products out there. Many of them promise increased engagement, greater connection, and a wealth of other benefits. But what does improving employee engagement actually look like during a typical workday?

Meet Mia. She’s a hard-working mom of two intent on doing it all. She’s been working from home these past couple of years thanks to the pandemic, and she’s just now starting to go into the office a couple of days per week.

Mia’s’s always been pretty social, despite her introverted tendencies, and the transition to remote hit her harder than she expected. Luckily, her company was ready with tools to keep her connected, engaged, and thriving.

Let’s see how Workrowd makes improving employee engagement easy for Mia’s employer, as we follow her on a typical day in the life.

A day in the life with Workrowd

8:15am

The kids are off to school, the laundry’s already in the dryer, and Mia’s feeling good about the day ahead. She grabs a cup of coffee and settles in at her desk. 

Before she starts work, it’s time for her moment of mindfulness, thanks to the company’s meditation group. 

Mia pulls up Workrowd in her browser and checks out the mindfulness prompt for today. She starts to practice the breathing exercises she learned recently to quiet her mind. 

She’s up to fifteen minutes of meditation per day now, from five. The benefits to her concentration and mental health are really starting to come through. All the techniques she’s learned have also proven helpful when the kids are testing her patience!

If she hadn’t had the chance to check out the group on Workrowd first, without having to commit to anything, she never would’ve gotten into mindfulness. Now, she’s not sure how she could function without it. 

9:30am

Now that her email inbox is (somewhat) under control and she’s put out a couple of fires, it’s time for her first meeting of the day. It’s to discuss a new cross-departmental project, which can be tricky when you’re working with new colleagues. 

Luckily, she already knows a couple of the people involved thanks to the company Toastmasters group. Having bonded over their fear of public speaking, collaboration is going to be a lot easier. 

Mia had wanted to try Toastmasters for years. So, when she saw the company group on Workrowd the day she started, she clicked the ‘Join’ button immediately. (Even though she was already anxious just thinking about her first speech!) Her confidence and speaking skills have improved quite a bit, and she’s enjoying the challenge. Presenting in meetings is much less stressful now, too!

11:00am

They changed the time of the All Hands this week, but Workrowd sent her a notification, meaning there was no confusion over when it was actually happening. 

Because of the new time, Mia has to leave the All Hands early to join a previously scheduled call. Workrowd has her covered, though. The recording will be posted and easy to find, along with the slides and any comments from the team. She’s going to check it all out tomorrow morning when she has a few spare minutes.

12:30pm

As the sponsor of the Managers-in-Training program, Mia’s put together a lunch and learn.

Workrowd enabled her to notify and share readings with all the participants in advance. She used to have to manually update the program’s mailing list to keep everyone in the loop, but now the platform takes care of membership.

Plus, everyone knew where to find the materials alongside the event information, so they were all prepared when they arrived. It’s a big help to have so much of the admin work off of her plate. Now she can focus her energy on running a great program that delivers results.

Workrowd doesn’t just help employers with improving employee engagement; it also empowers employee leaders to drive culture and engagement from the ground up. Today’s lunch and learn discussion yielded some great insights.

1:30pm

As the lunch and learn discussion wraps up, Mia remembers that she needs to update her group’s budget and download a reimbursement form for some supplies she purchased for a recent training session. 

Having everything in one place on Workrowd is super convenient. 

She updates her budget with the new information so leadership can easily see how much she spent and compare it against their key performance indicators. Mia is proud that the Managers-in-Training program is operating under budget while exceeding their goals. 

After she grabs the reimbursement form from the Tools section of the leaders’ group, she signs and submits it. Job done!

2:00-4:00pm

Time for some deep, focused work. 

Because Workrowd organizes all of Mia’s notifications about the company’s employee groups, programs, and events in one place, she’s not getting random pings about fitness classes or happy hours while she’s trying to concentrate. 

That doesn’t mean she’s going to miss out, though. She can catch up on what’s happening on her own time, instead of getting interrupted every time something is posted.

4:00pm

After some deep work, Mia opens Workrowd to change her response for this evening’s company volunteer shift. Originally, she’d RSVPed for three people since it was just going to be her and the kids. Luckily though, her partner’s business dinner was cancelled, so now there will be four of them. 

Thanks to the comprehensive event details on Workrowd, she knew it was okay to add an additional person this close to the start time.

7:00pm

The whole family had a great time at the volunteer event, and really felt like they were able to make a difference. Now, everyone’s hungry but they can’t decide where to grab a bite. 

Mia remembers that there was a discussion thread about family-friendly restaurants in the Resources section of the caregivers’ ERG. She quickly pulls up Workrowd to check out what her colleagues recommended. 

They find a great place and while they’re driving there, Mia takes two minutes to fill out the five-question feedback survey about the volunteer event. 

She knows the group leader and the HR team will really love hearing about how much fun the family had. The automated analytics make it much easier for them to see how groups, programs, and events are impacting her and her colleagues in real time. 

Mia greatly prefers this bite-size version to the flood of requests to complete those endless employee engagement surveys once or twice a year.

10:00pm

Time to start winding down. Mia climbs into bed and dives back into the current book for the company book club. It’s a real page-turner! 

It’s so good that she drops a note in the book club chat on Workrowd, sharing how much she’s enjoying the story. Hopefully it’ll encourage anyone considering skipping this month to give it a chance. She’s so glad she has such a great work community.

Conclusion 

Mia’s story isn’t uncommon. Companies everywhere are enjoying the benefits of improving employee engagement with Workrowd.

The wide array of employee experience tools out there can be overwhelming. If you’re currently exploring options for improving employee engagement, let’s talk.

We’d love to learn more about any challenges you’re facing with your current approach to improving employee engagement, and discuss some ways our one-stop suite of tools can help.

Improving employee engagement doesn’t have to be hard. With Workrowd’s customizable, user-friendly platform, you can automate processes, reduce admin time, and keep every team member engaged and thriving.

8 strategies to boost employee attraction and retention in 2024

How to cultivate empathy at work—and why it matters

5 overlooked causes of employee disengagement

When employees are engaged, they’re more likely to stay. They’ll help you attract better-quality candidates when you hire, and you’ll make more money. So just invest in your biggest employee engagement drivers and you’ll be set, right?

Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to identify your most effective employee engagement drivers. Simple things that keep employees engaged are often overlooked. And the more of them you overlook, the more significantly they’ll affect your business.

Your company culture, mission, and industry will impact which employee engagement drivers actually move the needle. 

For example, meaningful work for a home health aide can be very different from that for a salesperson in SaaS. That being said, there are some core principles that matter regardless of industry or role. 

So, what are some employee engagement drivers that companies often overlook? Let’s explore:

Meaningful work

While a paycheck is great, many now want more from their work than just being able to pay the bills. 

Think about why you do what you do. Is it just to earn money, or do you want to make a difference by solving genuine problems?

Not every employee wants the responsibility of managing people or running their own business. That doesn’t mean they don’t still want to make a difference. 

Most of their time is spent at work, so work is where they’re most likely to be able to drive change.

Many of us feel like we spend our working days just going through the motions, though. It can leave us with little energy to do something meaningful when we get home.

How can you change that? Some of it ties into…

Company culture

When your company culture is communicated clearly, you’re more likely to attract—and retain—employees whose values align with yours. 

This then means that they’re more aligned with your mission. They’ll feel like what they’re doing is meaningful because they want to solve the same problem(s) that you do.

However, too frequently how a company culture comes across to the outside world versus what it’s like for employees who spend their time there are two very different things.

If the culture you say you have differs from what you actually have, it will affect your employer brand. 

The more former employees and job candidates who talk about this disconnect on sites like Glassdoor, the more it will leave you to firefight two problems: your tattered brand and your poor culture.

It’s easy to become disconnected from what’s really happening as a business grows. 

Asking employees for their genuine opinions and experiences, and embracing the good and the bad, will help you to see what direction your company is really headed in and what the culture is like.

You can then use this information to look at what’s working and what needs to change.

It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been in business—a healthy company culture takes work. This is especially important for those in positions of power. Leading by example is one of the most important ways to develop the type of culture you want to create.

Career goals

Most people want to achieve something in their careers, even if they can’t articulate what that is. Helping employees to figure out—and achieve—their career goals can be a key employee engagement driver. 

Their enthusiasm for their role will be contagious, having a ripple effect on their peers.

It may even attract more like-minded candidates when it’s time for you to hire.

Setting out clear paths for employees to grow can be one way to support them. While the stereotypical path of career growth ends up with someone becoming a manager, not everyone wants this. 

Offering other paths, such as for them to become a go-to expert on a particular product or industry, enables them to increase their experience, income, and responsibility, without managing people.

You could also allow them to change teams or departments, or even work in a different location. These changes can help keep things fun and engaging for them. New skills and ideas can come from anywhere.

The more options you can offer employees to help them grow, the more likely they’ll be to stick around. And the more attractive you’ll be as an employer to candidates.

Belonging

A sense of belonging can boost our physical and mental health, improving everything from depression to heart disease. It can also be a big employee engagement driver because we care about who we work with and what we’re doing.

While this may not seem that important, Deloitte found that fostering a sense of belonging in the workplace can lead to:

• 50% lower turnover risk
• 167% increase in employer net promoter score
• 2x more employee raises
• 10x more promotions
• 75% decrease in sick days

Just one of those stats is impressive. When you see them together like that, it makes you wonder why more businesses haven’t worked harder on this.

To give employees a true sense of belonging, they need to feel comfortable being themselves, like they have meaningful relationships with coworkers, and like their skills make a difference to the business.

One of the ways you can do this (other than developing your company culture) is through…

Recognition

There’s nothing worse than a manager who takes credit for their employees’ ideas. We’ve all met someone like this at some point though, right?

When managers do this, it’s deeply unfair to their employees. This lack of appreciation makes employees wonder why they bothered in the first place. Which means they’ll be less inclined to share any future great ideas they may have.

People management isn’t just about telling someone what to do. It’s also about celebrating their successes and great ideas.

When someone does well, of course it reflects positively on their managers and the company. 

But it’s going to mean a lot less to that employee without someone to recognize when a great thing happened because of the employee’s work.

Never underestimate the power of a simple ‘thank you,’ especially when it comes to employee engagement drivers.

Conclusion 

Employee engagement affects every aspect of a business, from retention to productivity to sick days. 

The more you support your employees to feel comfortable in the workplace being themselves, connected with their colleagues, and like they’re making a meaningful contribution to the business, the bigger the difference you’ll see.

If you’re looking to tap into the power of these employee engagement drivers, take a look at Workrowd’s suite of tools. Our one-stop platform offers an array of features to help you market, manage, and measure employee engagement drivers across groups, programs, and events. Send us a note at hello@workrowd.com to learn more.

8 strategies to boost employee attraction and retention in 2024

How to cultivate empathy at work—and why it matters

5 overlooked causes of employee disengagement

It’s all too easy to focus on criticizing people for doing things badly or wrong, and far too convenient to forget to comment on the positive. For a happy, productive workforce, you really need a balance of both. That’s why it’s so important to find ways to recognize employees.

Employees will be happier and more productive going forward if you focus on celebrating the positives instead of criticizing them and homing in on the negatives. Focusing on those positives will build their confidence, making them better in their roles.

According to Harvard Business Review, employees need six pieces of positive feedback for every one piece of negative feedback. Low-performing teams were found to have been given an average of three negative comments for every positive comment.

Given that we often focus on the negatives, and that positive feedback triggers dopamine—AKA one of the happy hormones—in our brains, are these stats really that surprising?

Our culture isn’t wired to celebrate the positives, though. Unless you’re a very serious optimist, you may find it hard to come up with ways to recognize employees and show just how much you appreciate them.

So here are a few simple ways you can do just that.

Give them a shout out in meetings

This is one of the easiest ways to recognize employees, and sometimes it’s all you need.

Make sure whatever you comment on is specific. Don’t just say “great job;” explain why and how they did a great job.

Being specific will help both them and their teammates to understand why what that person did worked. It will then encourage that employee, along with their teammates, to approach related situations in a similar way going forward.

Tell them one-on-one

It’s sometimes nice to pull someone aside and give them a pat on the back in person (or via video). If your team member is quieter or shyer, they might prefer this to a shout out in a meeting. 

However, if you decide to do this and arrange the meeting in advance, make sure they know you want to talk to them about something positive. Otherwise, they may start to worry that they’ve done something wrong. Particularly if previous places they’ve worked at didn’t highlight the positives in this way.

You don’t have to plan the call in advance, though. You could send positive feedback in an email or Slack message instead.

Send them a present

Sending someone a present is a simple way to show them you appreciate them. It doesn’t have to be anything expensive. In fact, a thoughtful gift that shows you listen to them will mean much more than something generic.

For instance, if they’re into stationery, you could get them a pretty fountain pen, or if they’re into reading, a new book in a genre they like to read.

One thing you don’t want to do is send them something that has the company’s branding on it. This will feel generic, soulless, and like you’re only doing it to promote your own business.

Take them on a day out

A day out can be just what we need sometimes to feel refreshed and ready to take on the world. 

You could give them a voucher to go on a day out with their family or take them somewhere you think they’d enjoy. It doesn’t have to be work-related. Sometimes it’s better if it’s not, as it will offer a welcome break from the daily grind.

Pay for a training course

Your best employees are the ones you want to stick around. What better way to show them you appreciate them than investing in their future?

Ask them what skills they’d like to learn and find some courses that might help them build those capabilities.

Ask if they’d like to be a coach

Your best employees are often the best coaches because they can help others to develop the habits that made them so successful in their role. 

The more people who adopt the right mindset, the more benefits your business will experience.

If they’re unsure, you could send them on a coaching/leadership training program so that they understand what would be required from them before they get involved.

Reward the team

Most people couldn’t do their job without the awesome people around them. So why not reward everyone they work with for their win? 

It’ll encourage better teamwork and a greater sense of camaraderie. Their teammates will celebrate their win, too. When thinking about ways to recognize employees, it can be helpful to consider the larger group and not just one or two individuals.

Give them a shout out on social media

What you post on social media reflects your internal culture. So, if you take the time to celebrate your employees’ wins, it shows the rest of the world that you truly appreciate how hard your team members work for you. 

It reflects a positive, grateful culture that’s about so much more than turning a profit.

This will help to attract better candidates, shortening your hiring process and reducing the cost to hire. It’s a win for your employees and a win for you.

Conclusion 

Recognizing employees doesn’t have to cost a fortune. It doesn’t have to cost anything! 

Most of us spend more time with our colleagues than we do our loved ones. Working remotely hasn’t changed this all that much, with many of us super-glued to our screens and sometimes working even longer hours than we did before the pandemic.

And let’s not forget—just because someone chooses to work for you now, that doesn’t mean they’re going to stay. Especially if their hours have increased and they have less time to spend with their loved ones, even though they’re working from home.

Showing a little appreciation for an employee’s hard work can go a long way to retaining them. After all, they’re choosing to spend their time and energy with you. That’s a privilege that shouldn’t be taken for granted.

If you’re looking for more ways to recognize employees and build a top-notch company culture, see if Workrowd’s employee experience platform might be a good fit. Our central hub for culture, engagement, and recognition makes it easy for team members to connect and support each other. Send us a note at hello@workrowd.com to learn more.

8 strategies to boost employee attraction and retention in 2024

How to cultivate empathy at work—and why it matters

5 overlooked causes of employee disengagement

Tracking employee engagement metrics can help you prevent absenteeism, build your brand, reduce employee turnover, and make more money. 

It can also help you spot issues within your workforce which could turn into bigger problems if left unaddressed.

What employee engagement metrics do you need to track, though? Which are going to show you what areas need work, or how employees really feel? Let’s take a look.

Absenteeism

How often employees are out sick—and how long they’re out for—can be huge indicators of employee engagement.

Stress can weaken our immune systems, meaning we’re more susceptible to germs and infections. 

Not to mention there’s the psychological toll of stress, which can cause long-term absences.

A controlling, closed-off, and judgmental company culture can make employees feel uncomfortable sharing that they’re stressed. When employees don’t mention their concerns to colleagues, it makes it harder to find solutions.

Negative company cultures that don’t support employees’ mental health reinforce stigmas and can make stress worse.

Of course, stress isn’t the only thing that can cause employees to repeatedly miss work. There are lots of reasons, and if an employee is frequently absent, it’s worth finding out why. 

Companies often use formulas to track employee absences, but they offer a very black and white picture. You can’t compare the health of someone who’s chronically ill or disabled with someone who hasn’t had a cold in a decade.

Instead of relying on a formula, look for patterns. Are employees out after certain events? Or at a particular time of the year? 

Patterns will help you identify issues. Investigating the story behind them will allow you to make more informed decisions and accommodations.

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

NPS measures how likely someone is to recommend your business to another person, on a scale of 1 to 10. 

How an employee rates your business on this scale will tell you more than you might be comfortable with.

Especially when only scores of 9-10 count as promoters. Scores of 7 and 8 are neutral, and scores of 6 or below are detractors. 

These scores can be a real indicator of whether employees are happy in their roles or not. 

If your NPS goes down over time, it may be worth tracking backwards to see how things have changed. Investigating what measures were put into place before the score trended downward will help you turn the tide.

You can apply the Net Promoter Score approach to almost any element of your business, giving you a standardized way to compare across your employee engagement metrics.

Employee turnover rate

What’s the average time someone spends working for your company? Do they progress through the ranks, or do they leave when it’s time for a promotion? Or maybe there’s a trend of employees failing their probation period?

The longer someone stays, the happier they’re likely to be in their working environment.

Tracking turnover not just company-wide, but by department, role, etc. may expose issues you wouldn’t have otherwise discovered.

It could be that some departments have a faster churn rate than others, which can be a sign of a problem within that department instead of the company itself.

Productivity

Disengaged employees are 18% less productive. So, if your employees aren’t hitting their goals, it’s time to dig deeper. 

Managers can’t fix poor productivity levels simply by shouting at employees to work harder. This will lead to more disengagement, and increased absenteeism.

Instead, it’s time to investigate why productivity has gone down. What’s missing? What are employees dissatisfied with? 

You want to ensure employees can have an open and honest dialogue with you about what’s going on in their lives and how it’s affecting their work, whether it’s a personal or professional issue. 

A wide range of things can affect someone’s productivity, and it can continue to deteriorate without the right support. Maybe they need some training, a change in their working environment, or a switch to a new department.

Sometimes all it takes is a short conversation to make employees feel heard. You never know until you ask.

Social media advocacy rates

You’ll never stop employees from using social media during the working day. How you encourage employees to use it, and what they say as a result, will tell you more about your business than you might think.

Employees are 20% more likely to stay at a socially engaged company. They’re also 27% more likely to feel positively about the company’s future.

And, the happier those employees are, the more likely they’ll be to share how they feel online. 

You’ll never get 100% of employees onboard—it’s likely to be around a third—but it only takes a handful of advocates regularly posting to speed up the purchasing process, improve the quality of candidates you attract, and build your employees’ brands within the industry.

Employee advocacy only works if employees are willing to share their honest opinions, and if they’re encouraged to do so. If businesses tell employees to repeat what upper management says, it isn’t advocacy. It’s a loudspeaker designed to draw attention to the business instead of lifting employees up and encouraging them to help their network.

This loudspeaker puts employees off becoming advocates and misses the key part of social media: being social.

Conclusion 

Employee engagement is about so much more than the stats in front of you. It’s about the stories behind those statistics, too. 

You have to dig into the trends and issues behind the statistics to build a thriving and inclusive employee experience.

Engaged employees are a sign of a positive company culture. It’s hard for employees to be happy in their roles and want to stay if they feel dictated to, controlled, or otherwise disconnected from what they’re doing. 

While putting numbers to things with employee engagement metrics makes life simpler on paper, what employees say about your company both on and off the clock matters, too. 

An engaged employee will recommend your company to both customers and future hires. They’ll be happy to spread the word about your business online and offline, attracting more of the right kinds of people and improving time to hire, reducing how long someone takes to make a purchase, and much more.

If you’re looking to supercharge your employee experience and ensure your employee engagement metrics are always just a click away, check out Workrowd. Our automated data collection and customizable dashboards make it easy to see which employee programs and events are driving engagement, and which could use some tweaking. Drop us a note at hello@workrowd.com to learn more.

8 strategies to boost employee attraction and retention in 2024

How to cultivate empathy at work—and why it matters

5 overlooked causes of employee disengagement

It’s easy for employees to become disengaged in their roles, especially in the current climate. The world is so unpredictable these days, that it can be difficult for employees to stay focused. This is where communication and employee engagement come in.

Jobs used to be a source of security. Now, though, with ever-changing rules and businesses cutting back or closing, that security is long gone.

This can lead to employees feeling undervalued and/or underperforming on their tasks.

It’s important you take steps to reassure them that you do value them, and want them on the team. Not doing this can lead to losing some of your top performers, increasing the strain caused by the pandemic.

Unfortunately, Gallup suggests that only 33% of people are engaged in their jobs. This has remained true even though the benefits of an engaged workforce have been proven time and time again. Caterpillar, a construction equipment manufacturer, saved $8.8 million annually by reducing absenteeism, attrition rates, and overtime in a European plant. They also increased profits by $2 million and customer satisfaction by 34%.

So what steps can you take to re-engage your employees? Here are some tips that will improve your communication and employee engagement, along with your culture, retention, and more.

Encourage open communication

Businesses talk about open communication a lot, but rarely actually practice it. This means employees won’t share with you what’s going on in their lives that could affect their work. As a result, when someone’s productivity suffers, the default is to punish them instead of supporting them.

When a company has a culture of open communication, employees feel more comfortable sharing their physical or mental health problems, or other situations which may impact their workload.

They’ll also feel more open to giving and receiving feedback, because it’s embedded in the company culture.

It may help to offer some sort of training around feedback and communication to help with this. 

Too often, people assume they’re great at listening, but then talk over the person who’s speaking. Similarly, they may think they’re great at giving feedback but only focus on the negatives. 

A brief training session—or even encouraging everyone to read a blog post on feedback or communication—reinforces that you’re serious about having a culture of open, honest communication. This is a key way in which communication and employee engagement deeply impact each other.

Make accommodations

People’s lives have changed a lot in the last two years because of the pandemic. But many changes have happened outside of Covid-19, too. 

Employees with elderly relatives may have become caregivers, or another employee may have been diagnosed with a chronic health issue. Employees rarely communicate these things to employers. They either don’t know how to talk about it, don’t think their employer will care, or don’t know what their employer can do.

If someone’s situation has changed, making simple accommodations like allowing flexible working or reducing their hours can show that you still value them and you want to support them as they adjust to their new normal.

Make them feel included in decisions

When companies make changes, they often fail to communicate them to employees in the right way (if they communicate them at all).

They simply announce the change to employees out of nowhere. This leaves employees feeling like they’re not valued and that their opinions don’t matter.

It’s impossible to make everyone happy when introducing changes. That said, it’s important to hear everyone’s opinions, even if they won’t change the outcome. 

It isn’t about involving employees in every decision-making process (although if you can include them, they’ll always appreciate it). It’s about giving them the chance to have their voices heard. 

People can get frustrated when it feels like they’re not being listened to. To remedy this, try running a survey, holding a drop-in chat where employees can ask questions, or inviting feedback via email. 

These opportunities for openness and honesty encourage a positive atmosphere within the business, as well as keeping employees engaged. Changing your approach to communication and employee engagement can transform your company culture.

Ask employees what they want out of their roles

In smaller or newer companies, job descriptions can sometimes be flexible or hard to define. Leaders expect early employees to be jacks-of-all-trades, knowing a little about everything. 

As the company expands, new opportunities become available. It’s important you offer these to existing employees as well as external applicants. It may just help you retain someone who’s great at what they do, but who feels disconnected in their current position.

Offer them the chance to retrain

If someone has been with a business for a long time, or their priorities/interests have changed, it can lead to them feeling bored or unstimulated. This can mean their performance goes down, and they may start looking for other opportunities.

However, just because someone is disengaged in that role, it doesn’t mean they’re not worth retaining or that they can’t excel in another position. 

Always make it clear to employees—wherever they are on their journeys—that they can talk to you about moving departments or retraining should they start to feel dissatisfied.

This is particularly important for areas with high turnover or little room for progression, such as customer support. 

If someone has the right mindset and their attitude is a positive influence on the company, see how you can support them, whether that’s through retraining, or helping them to move on by providing a stellar reference. 

As much as you want to, you can’t keep everyone. Offering them support to move on shows them you respect them, and may encourage them to come back in the future.

Host team building activities

Team-building activities are a great way for employees to get to know their colleagues. 

They’re even more important for remote teams, who may not get to bond with their colleagues in the same way that employees who spend every day in an office would.

Encouraging things like quiz nights, hackathons, or book clubs are just some of the ways employees can connect outside of their day-to-day work activities. Increasing interpersonal communication and employee engagement in this way can make all the difference.

Conclusion 

Keeping employees engaged really boils down to one thing: making them feel like they matter. And the simplest way to do that is to listen to them and communicate openly. 

You may not be able to offer a solution to the problem they’re facing, or have an answer for how they’re feeling, but you don’t always have to. To make people feel valued in any situation, it’s all about giving them the chance to feel heard.

If you want to provide more opportunities for employees to communicate both with each other, and with leaders, we invite you to check out Workrowd’s suite of tools. We’ve even streamlined the process of sharing and storing top-down employee communications. Paired with our automated employee engagement surveys, your workplace will have all the tools it needs to thrive. Visit us at workrowd.com or drop us a line at hello@workrowd.com.

8 strategies to boost employee attraction and retention in 2024

How to cultivate empathy at work—and why it matters

5 overlooked causes of employee disengagement

Writing an employee engagement newsletter is hard enough. But there’s no guarantee that after all your hard work anyone is actually going to read it. 

Newsletters can play an important part in developing employee engagement and loyalty if done right, though.

So, how do you write an employee engagement newsletter that people will actually read? It’s time to bring out the psychology textbook and throw away your English notes, because great writing of any kind of is the opposite of what you were taught in school…

Don’t write an essay

The only time most of us are taught to write nonfiction is when we’re taught essay writing in school. 

But that writing style just doesn’t cut it in the real world. 

Most people outside of academia don’t read essays for fun. If they do, they’re essays that are relevant to them, fun to read, or—hopefully—both.

That means it’s time to put away the big words, long paragraphs, and formal tone of voice. If you want employees to keep reading, you need to make what they’re reading accessible.

There’s a reason the most widely-read newspapers have an average reading level of an eighth grader. More people can understand them because it requires less brain power to read them, regardless of their level of education.

Reading takes time and energy. You don’t know what the reading skills—or energy levels—are of your employees. 

Giving them something that’s easy to read will make them grateful you’ve put their needs on equal footing with (or even above) what you want to talk about. 

Which means they’re more likely to read what you send them, and to maybe even look forward to your employee engagement newsletter.

Embrace white space

White space is exactly what it sounds like: all the white (empty) space around text, imagery, etc., on a page.

The point of white space is to guide your reader’s eye to focus on particular words or phrases, which is why it’s common in poetry.

If you look back through this post, you’ll notice that many of the paragraphs are only a sentence or two-long. That’s me embracing white space.

Why do I do this?

Because it’s easier for you to read.

Think about the last time you read a really long paragraph, particularly on a small screen like a mobile phone. Your fingers don’t move as much, nor do your eyes. And so your eyes start to get tired. Which makes your brain tired. Which makes you start to get bored. Even if the topic you’re reading about is interesting, a wall of text simply isn’t as accessible to read on a screen. Not to mention it doesn’t look particularly attractive, either—it looks intimidating and makes people want to switch off.

See what I did there?

How far into the paragraph above did you get before your eyes started to twitch or your mind started to wander?

The longer your paragraphs are, the more readers will feel that way.

In the modern age, most attention spans are around eight seconds.

Not to mention reading on screens isn’t exactly pleasant for our eyes.

You want to make sure people’s eyes are constantly moving around the page and their fingers are always scrolling. This will help to keep their brains engaged.

Write in second person

Second person writing uses the pronoun ‘you’ to create a deeper, faster connection between writer and reader. It’s why most blog posts are written in second person.

It also makes readers feel like the content is more relevant to them, since they’re being addressed directly.

Make it relevant to them

Why do you want employees to read your newsletter? What’s the benefit for them? There should be clear benefits to them reading it beyond just ‘we’re sending it to talk about the business’.

If you don’t have anything interesting to say…spend your time writing something else.

Nobody wants to read a newsletter that’s full of bragging or navel gazing. If you’ve had a recent win, by all means share it, but don’t go on and on about it. 

An employee engagement newsletter should be about building rapport and camaraderie. If you’re just doing it to brag about stuff, employees will glance over it and have no interest in reading future installments.

Use humor 

You may feel like you work in an industry that can’t use humor. But stay with me for a minute.

You know why popsicle stick jokes are so bad?

Because we bond over how bad they are.

Comedy itself can be divisive. Everyone has slightly different senses of humor, and, particularly in larger companies, there’s no guarantee everyone will find the same thing funny.

But, if you use humor in the right way, you can deepen engagement and employees’ feelings of loyalty to your brand.

To use comedy the right way, make sure you never, ever make fun of an employee. That’s the kind of comedy that’s divisive and can be harmful. 

And steer clear of controversial topics like politics or religion. 

Instead, think about how you write about something.

Where can you bring in analogies, anecdotes, or comparisons? When did something unexpected happen that you could share?

You could even ask employees to share their funny work or personal stories to make them feel more involved. 

If you want some tips on how to add humor to a business environment, check out David Nihill’s “Do You Talk Funny?”

Be predictable

If employees know when to expect your newsletter, they can carve out time in their day to read it.

If it’s sent intermittently, they’re more likely to be in the middle of something. 

So they’ll plan to read it once they’ve finished what they were doing, but then more stuff gets added to their to-do list, the newsletter gets pushed down their priorities, and eventually it gets forgotten.

Sending your employee engagement newsletter at the same day/time, whether that’s weekly, monthly, bimonthly, or something else, ensures they know when it’s coming up and can factor it into their schedule.

Conclusion 

Writing any newsletter people want to read is easier said than done. That doesn’t make it impossible, though. 

It’s all about changing your perspective to make it about what your employees want/need to know, over what you want to talk about.

At the end of the day, putting employees first is the most important part of building a happy, productive company culture, right? Your internal newsletters can play a big role in that. 

In fact, if done right, they can encourage employees to be more engaged with your business, and maybe even inspire them to write better business communications themselves.

If you’re looking for an easy way to organize and distribute communications like an employee engagement newsletter, Workrowd has you covered.

With our one-stop platform for employee communities, it’s easy to ensure your message reaches the right audience every time. If you’d like to learn more about how we can take your communications sharing to the next level, drop by the homepage or send us a note at hello@workrowd.com.

8 strategies to boost employee attraction and retention in 2024

How to cultivate empathy at work—and why it matters

5 overlooked causes of employee disengagement