Employee Engagement Ideas and Examples

Not only is better employee engagement becoming more accessible in the modern business environment, it's becoming a prerequisite for successful companies. If other companies can out-talent you, they'll probably out-compete you.

Improving employee engagement and building an outstanding company culture can seem like a monumental task, but just like any large task, it starts with a single step.

Our suggestion? Any of the below:

Engagement surveys

Like we mentioned in Chapter 3, just the act of asking for feedback provides a greater sense of employee voice. And just the gesture of showing that employees were heard, regardless if you can act on their feedback, is huge for employee engagement.

The biggest value, though, is in the insights that your people share. Giving them an anonymous channel can bring out perspectives that they may not share with their manager or that may never get to the people who can respond to it.

That's where the biggest opportunity is: responding. When you cannot give them what they ask for, explain why, and express how important their continued feedback is for the company's continued improvement.

It is simple to get started with free or low cost tools like SurveyMonkey, Typeform, or Google Forms and a foundational set of questions.

Stay interviews

Some organizations do "stay interviews" in addition to exit interviews. Just like how it sounds, stay interviews are conversations that assess why an employee is choosing to stay at a company, and the factors that influence that decision.

"Typically it's not until the exit interview that you're given perspective on what went wrong, and by then it's too late to change the person's mind."
-Mandy Gilbert, Founder and CEO, Creative Niche

This is a practice that you could implement at points in the employee lifecycle. In fact, it could even be embedded in regular manager-employee discussions, asking both what the employee needs to do their job well and to develop within the organization.

This helps the employee feel heard, making them more likely to stay engaged with their work. 🎉

One-on-one meetings

The manager-employee meeting may seem low-tech and old news, but don't let the simplicity fool you: this is one of the most powerful practices to keep your employees engaged, motivated, and accountable.

Whether daily, weekly, or monthly, checking in privately allows employees to share what's going well and where they could use more support. When performance discussions are happening more than once a year, then they are less scary and more helpful. Check out our tips for doing it right.

Show your appreciation

Your employees word hard, and a simple thank you for their contributions can go a long way. If you need more ideas, check out this big list of great employee appreciation ideas.

"84% of Highly Engaged employees were recognized the last time they went above and beyond at work compared to only 25% of Actively Disengaged employees."
-Bonusly's 2019 Engagement and Modern Workplace Report

Want to go even further? A dedicated recognition and rewards program can significantly improve employee engagement at your organization.

"It doesn't matter how many coworkers people have, they just want to be told they're doing a good job.

Instead of being driven from the top down, our success with Bonusly grew organically. Our employees wanted frequent recognition, and the program empowers them to recognize each other. Having the ability to recognize someone immediately is the most valuable part of Bonusly."

-Andrew Schrader, Chobani

If you need more help, come chat with us! We invite you to tour the platform and join one of our recognition experts for a demo to learn more about how you can start building a highly-engaged organizational culture.

Now what?

Every company is different, as is every employee. Improving employee engagement at your organization can seem like an intimidating task, but the benefits are worth it. In turn, the path toward excellent engagement will also lead you to a solid, healthy company culture. 🙌💚