The 7 Methods to Enhance Employee Engagement in 2022

While 2020 was one of the most unsettling and tumultuous years for businesses and employees alike, in 2022 we must continue to adapt to the new normal. The new year is a great time to re-evaluate your business's processes and set new goals for rebuilding a resilient company and maintaining a healthy and productive workforce.

‍Now more than ever, as each organization works to rebuild and create a new normal, they will rely heavily on the energy, commitment, and engagement of their employees to survive, adapt, and thrive in the new normal. As such, more businesses are looking for ways to increase and boost employee engagement, improve the workplace environment, and ensure team members are getting the support they need to do their work successfully.

‍Previously, we discussed the important metrics to measure employee engagement levels, but in this article, we wanted to discuss how to increase employee engagement (2022). These suggestions will be sure to make your employees love their jobs. It will also encourage employees to work well with each other, remain committed to the company, and invest in the organization's success.

Why Should Companies Try to Increase Employee Engagement?

As people management has evolved and grown over the past several years, it has become increasingly important to invest in ensuring that your employees are engaged and fulfilled at work. In fact, employee engagement has been one of the biggest workplace focal points for the past several years and it's easy to see why.

Managers who have the capabilities to engage employees are more invested in their jobs, more passionate about their work, more productive, and more inspired. Engaged employees perform better, too.

‍And it's not just about keeping employees happy either. In fact, engagement and happiness are not entirely the same thing. A team member can be happy at work without being an engaged employee. This usually means temporary happiness that fades just as quickly. On the flip side, employees and teams that are highly engaged are finding fulfillment in their jobs and are more committed to their employers, the business brand, and improving their work.

‍Additionally, companies have found that a team with high employee engagement is not just more productive but also easier to manage. This allows leaders and managers to focus on more high-value work and activities like innovation, business development, and company improvement.

Plus, good employee engagement levels mean that your employees are satisfied with their work and believe in their contribution to the company. Keeping employees engaged helps reduce employee turnover, boost productivity and efficiency, and ultimately results in better business outcomes, and an enhanced customer experience.

‍This is why several businesses have focused so much attention on fostering and nurturing a company culture that prioritizes measuring employee engagement and creating an engaged workforce.

Why Do Good Employee Engagement Strategies Impact Work Performance?

There is no doubt about the positive impact that a great employee engagement strategy can have on a company. But what are the main reasons for this? To better understand how employee engagement ideas make a difference, it's important to understand what employee engagement does for the employee experience.

‍A good employee engagement program provides employees with the following:

1. A clear understanding of their role in the company, the organization's mission, the company core values, and how their work impacts the business.
2. The training, tools, and resources to be able to do their jobs well.
3. The opportunity for career development and improvement.
4. A clear understanding of the employer brand and company culture.
5. Leaders and managers that care about the employee experience and value feedback
6. An inclusive work environment
7. A sense of belonging and acceptance at work
8. A workplace that values and gives importance to employee feedback
9. The ability to create work-life balance and better manage work schedules
10. A high-level understanding of their contribution to the business

All of these are instrumental to improving employee engagement levels and it's easy to see why a keen focus to nurture engaged employees results in an improved workplace environment for your people and overall better business outcomes.

How to Improve Employee Engagement?

Knowing why it's important to improve employee engagement is a critical first step. The next step is understanding how to do it. The following are simple steps your business can take to create a more engaged team and a better workplace for your people.

1) Create an Employee Engagement Survey

The employee engagement survey is the number one tool in your people management toolbox. Long gone are the days of tedious paper-and-pen employee engagement surveys though. Now, you can create a digital survey that your employees can answer easily online and your managers can easily track.

With Qualee, you can create a survey to better understand what drives employee engagement. Employees can fill it out on their mobile devices and you can receive instantaneous results complete with analytics to measure their responses and come up with factors that assist in driving employee engagement.

Send these out quarterly and establish regular review sessions to keep up to date on what's working—and what's not and ensure you are maintaining engaged employees and resolving the issues the actively disengaged employees raise. Doing so will not only improve employee relations, it will also significantly increase employee retention.

2) Create Quizzes

Engagement happens at many levels in work. Sometimes it means finding creative and unique ways to interact with your team. Creating fun activities like quizzes is a good way to get workers excited, connect employees with their colleagues and ensure their participation. If you make things fun for your employees, they are more likely to get involved.

Plus, employees generally to compete, and quizzes are an excellent way to drive employee engagement, especially when there are new work policies and industry information. With Qualee, you can create quizzes that are both fun and informative. And Qualee aims to keep quizzes bite-sized and fun by turning them into a game with some friendly competition and a dash of positive reinforcement. Don't rule out having a raffle or prize for top performers!

3) Make Management Visible

A recent Gallup poll showed remote employees (be it existing or new employees) have higher engagement rates than in-office workers when they receive direct feedback from their bosses [1]. This shows that employees crave feedback and they want to know their work is being appreciated and that their contributions are being noticed and valued by their managers and the team. When your management gives feedback, employees feel valued.

Knowing this, make it your goal this year to have more direct communication with your employees. We know how difficult it can be for managers to have one-on-one conversations with each of their employees right now. The Qualee app offers to resolve this by making one of the methods of employee engagement easier for your staff to perform. The app provides encrypted instant messaging to allow you to text back and forth with your employees in a safe and efficient way. Ensuring good communication will help you maintain engaged employees and job satisfaction. It can also enable employees engage in relationship building with other team members.‍

4) Don't Neglect Training and Development

Training and development is a big aspect of employee engagement. When companies provide employees ample career growth opportunities and professional development opportunities, they are also investing in the creation of highly engaged teams.

Despite the challenges of 2022, it's important that companies still invest in their hiring process, onboarding process, learning programs, and mental health and company-wide wellness initiative to address every stage of career development. It is also important to encourage healthy lifestyles among new hires and existing employees.

Going online is a good way to continue proper training programs and give your employees the chance to upskill. Create programs designed to teach employees the skills they need for the new normal and you'll be hitting two birds with one stone - ensuring highly engaged employees and equipping them with the most-needed skills during these challenging times.

5) Give Back to Your Employees

Giving back to your employees can take several different forms, whether by sending them gift baskets or by emphasizing they take time to balance their work with their lives by giving them a little extra time off. Employees highly value appreciation managers show them for their good work so don't forget to find ways to give back.

Try to highlight how important your employees are to your business by regularly showing them how valuable their contributions are. Sometimes there doesn't even need to be a reason to show your workers some appreciation and give employee recognition. Make sure to express to them that they are the backbone of your company some extra TLC.

6) Find Out More About Your Team

Maybe one of your employees climbed Everest or recently started a lifestyle blog. Maybe a few of your employees are trying to start a shared interest group within the company. Find out about what makes your workers tick and see if there's a way for them to incorporate their passion into your business.

It can be as simple as letting someone with a passion for graphic design come up with a few social media posts for work or letting the fitness-loving employee lead the team in a workout. The best part? As you discover more about your employees, there's always a possibility you'll find a diamond in the rough who may be a better fit in a different department.

7) Encourage Team Goals

It can be easy to expect employees to meet company goals but look to encourage team goals that employees have input on. This method tends to make people feel more connected to your company, as well as promote a sense of teamwork amongst your employees, leading to stronger bonds and better synergy as a team.

Employee engagement is an important factor when running a business, and we think these six methods will make your engagement levels skyrocket and result in happier more productive employees. Remember that most of your employees love your company as much as you do, and 2022 is the perfect time to get employees more involved.

Try the  today or contact us to discuss solutions for improving the workplace for your employees and increasing your organization's employee engagement rates.

[1] https://www.gallup.com/workplace/327518/gallup-workplace-insights-learned-2020.aspx