Engagement is a term that’s important a lot in the workplace. It’s often associated with employee satisfaction, happiness, and productivity. But what does engagement mean?

Employee engagement is just what it sounds like: the level of commitment that an employee has to their job, as well as their employer. It is a measure of how well employees are motivated, productive, and happy in their jobs. Companies that have higher employee engagement tend to have lower turnover rates and higher productivity.

According to reports, “Highly Engaged Employees Result in a 23% Increase in Profitability”.

Employee engagement isn’t something you can directly control; it’s a result of the work environment and culture you create for employees. Engaged employees are also more likely to bring their skills and enthusiasm to work every day.

As an employer, you have the power to foster a culture of engagement that makes your employees feel valued and fulfilled and improve the employee experience. To do so, though, you need to know what it takes to motivate and encourage them.

Employee engagement Ideas: Top Strategies for Enhancing Employee Engagement

1. Set clear expectations

One of the most important employee engagement ideas to improve employee engagement is by setting clear expectations. Employees should know exactly what's expected of them, including how they're supposed to behave at work, their performance goals, and how they’re evaluated.

Let's say you want an employee who can work independently: If so, it's important that he or she understands what this means in practice and what kind of behavior will be accepted.

Clear expectations ensure that everyone knows where they stand with their manager and organization. When everyone has a good idea about what needs doing (and why), people feel more empowered and engaged with their jobs because they have a sense of purpose as well as meaning in their work.

2. Provide flexible work schedules

Flexible work schedules can help employees balance their work and personal lives. This could mean allowing them to start or end their day earlier than normal, or allowing them to take a longer lunch break. It might also include giving them more time off during the week than you would normally provide.

Employees with childcare, eldercare or other responsibilities may benefit from flexible work schedules.

Another example is - Employees who live far away from the office may be able to make use of flexible work schedules to reduce their commute times so that they don't have to get up as early in the morning or leave as late at night.

3. Recognize and reward individual employees

Recognition is an important employee engagement idea, and it doesn't have to be complicated or expensive. Recognition can take the form of a “thank you note”, “verbal acknowledgment from a manager”, or even a job well done deserves recognition. A formal award from your company may also work for employees who go above and beyond.

Whatever form it takes, recognition should be timely and specific; don't forget about employees who are doing great work. Also remember that the more unique your employee is, the more unique their recognition should be too!!

4. Offer career development opportunities

It is also one of the most crucial employee engagement ideas. This can be done by providing them with opportunities for career development which help them grow their skills and broaden their responsibilities within the organization.

You might provide coaching, mentoring, or training so that your employees can learn new things, and take on new tasks or roles as needed within their current position. You could also offer them opportunities for further education or certification - even if it's just online courses provided by the company.

5. Conduct an annual employee satisfaction survey

It’s important to know how your employees feel about their jobs. Conducting an annual employee satisfaction survey is a great employee engagement idea. With the help of these surveys, you can get employee feedback, and find out where you can improve. Here are some tips for conducting an employee survey:

• Make sure it's easy to complete. You don't want anyone leaving answers blank because they don't have time!
• Ask open-ended questions that require more than just yes or no answers (like “What could we do better?” or “How did this job make you feel?”). This will help you understand what's going on in your workplace, and let employees have the opportunity to share their feelings without feeling like they're being judged for them—which can be uncomfortable when someone else is listening in!
• Create an anonymous employee survey form so that people can answer honestly without worrying about revealing their identity.

If you want to know how your employees feel, Dropthought can help you to collect your employee’s feedback, create delightful experiences for them, and more.

Dropthought is a user-friendly, omnichannel, and real-time employee experience management platform. We empower companies in different verticals to create delightful experiences for employees across their employee journey. Get detailed analysis and insights from data to exactly know what your employees think and what actions you need to take to delight them.

If you are interested to learn more, simply click here.