A to Z of Employee Engagement 

Employee engagement is still the dominant metric in HR. Improving employee engagement is often one of main KPIs of HR Professionals, and rightly so.  

Since employee engagement has proven to be the main driver of employee satisfaction, productivity and overall company success, it is useful to know what its main principles and best practices are. 

⚡ Follow this alphabetical article to add more tips and tricks to your employee engagement knowledge. Before we start, jump into your employees’ perspective and take a look at 16 questions employees use to evaluate their employers. 

A is for anniversary 

Don’t forget about your employees’ work anniversaries! It is an especially important date in your employees’ lives. Since one of the best ways to engage your employees is to recognize their hard work, do not miss the opportunity to congratulate your employees on their service anniversaries. 

Also, check out these ideas for employee service awards. 

B is for benefits 

Any Total Rewards or HR Professional knows that if you want more employee engagement, you have to build it upon the firm foundation of fair compensation and competitive benefits. There is a myriad of employee benefits you could provide to your employees – and you have to figure out whether it is healthcare insurance, flexible work options, more vacation time or something else your employees would value the most.

C is for communication 

Employee engagement can only flourish when employee communication is at the satisfactory level. In other words, it is counterproductive to employee engagement if your employees feel like they are missing out on important info, or if they are overwhelmed by information. You need to make sure your employees communicate effectively with their peers and with their managers alike. 

D is for development 

Employee development is hugely important for employee engagement. Since lack of development opportunities is one of the main reasons employees quit their jobs, we can safely say that ensuring your employees learn and grow in their roles is one of the best ways to engage them. 

E is for empowerment 

In order to be engaged, your employees need to feel empowered to make independent decisions. Employee engagement largely depends on intermediate managers. Therefore, your managers need to know how to empower employees if they expect them to be engaged. 

F is for feedback 

The importance of employee feedback cannot be overstated when discussing employee engagement. Employees need constructive feedback, and they need it more often than not. Research shows that 43% of highly engaged employees receive feedback at least once per week. 

⚡ Get these positive feedback examples to spark employee engagement in your company. 

G is for Gen Z 

Did you know that Millennials and Gen Z will very soon make a majority of world’s workforce? These generations expect more from their employers and workplaces. Therefore, you will need to apply different tactics to drive high employee engagement among Gen Z and Millennials.  

H is for human 

What employees are looking for in the workplace is a human approach. Long gone are the days of overworking, keeping up with horrible bosses and stressful workplaces. All employees need and deserve a decent workplace and kind colleagues if they are expected to contribute to their companies. 

Moreover, human resources professionals such as HR Business Partners will know that a human approach to employees translates into high employee engagement rates, and consequently into business success.  

I is for innovation 

Every company needs that its employees innovate in order to get ahead of its competitors. Moreover, HR professionals know that employee engagement successfully drives innovation. According to research, 59% of engaged employees say that their job brings out their most creative ideas compared to only 3% of disengaged employees. 

J is for journey 

In order to improve employee engagement, you need to know when and which actions to take. Thus, having an employee journey map in place is one of the first steps towards the holistic approach to your employees’ happiness. It will allow you to identify moments that matter, and actions to follow them up with in order to maximize your employees’ engagement every step of the way. 

K is for kindness 

All of us deserve kindness in the workplace. As research shows, job is the main stressor for 25% of employees. The last thing employees need is uncaring employers and colleagues, especially considering that their personal lives are more interconnected with their work than ever. Of course, the lack of kind and human approach in form of excessive competitiveness and overworking does have a negative impact on employee engagement. 

L is for leadership 

Leadership is crucial for employee engagement. In fact, managers account for at least 70% of variance in employee engagement. What is demotivating is that only 2.6% of are highly engaged themselves. Moreover, only 58% of managers say they did not receive proper management training. 

To back it up with more research, 63% of Millennials say that their leadership skills are not being fully developed, and this would drive 71% of them away from their current employer within 2 years. All of this research shows how crucial good leadership is for employee engagement.  

⚡ Learn about these 8 management styles your leaders could apply to drive more employee engagement among their teams. 

M is for motivation 

You know it’s true – high employee engagement is impossible without motivated employees. Moreover, your employees need to find their work meaningful in order to be motivated. As a matter of fact, 9 out of 10 employees would take a pay cut in order to do more meaningful jobs. 

Therefore, think about how you can motivate and engage your employees by explaining why their work matters. 

N is for nurture 

Employee engagement is all about nurture. Optimizing your employees’ experience, improving your workplace culture and making sure your employees are happy shows that you, as an employer, care. This systemic care or nurture for employees is what will eventually lead to employee engagement. 

O is for objectivity 

You need to treat your employees fairly and equally if you do not want their engagement to drop. Although we all try to be objective, it is sometimes hard to recognize your own internal biases. This is why you should be analytical as much as you can: try to set up numerical KPIs for your employees and use a consistent employee evaluation form for all your employees.  

P is for performance 

Improving employee engagement naturally leads to increased employee performance. However, you also need to recognize your top performers individually if you want everybody to strive to outdo themselves. Try to applaud exceptional results in a public space – social recognition has myriad of benefits for the workplace! 

Q is for quality 

What you probably aim for in your company is raising the bar: offering more quality to your customers every day. Luckily, when you take care of your employee engagement by recognizing your employees’ work, your customers will be more satisfied. In fact, SHRM’s research shows that 35% of companies that have employee recognition programs see increase in customer satisfaction. 

R is for recognition 

Employee recognition is one of the best cures for low employee engagement. In fact, 69% of employees would work harder if they felt their efforts were better appreciated.  

Moreover, 84% of HR Professionals agree that employee recognition positively affects employee engagement. Therefore, implementing an employee recognition program is one of the best practical advice if you want to enhance the state of your employee engagement.  

⚡ Take a look at how implementing JobPts, our recognition and rewards software, has helped some of our customers to engage their workforce and transform their company culture. Also, get these employee appreciation letters and employee appreciation quotes to recognize your employees’ work.

S is for surveys 

How are you tracking your employees’ engagement? With surveys, of course! You can use employee surveys to detect sentiment among your employees as well as to keep track of engagement trends. If you are out of ideas on how to check your employees’ engagement, check out our sample of most common employee surveys. 

T is for trust 

50% of employees believe being thanked by managers builds trust with their higher-ups. For employee engagement rate to soar, your employees need to trust one another and their superiors. 

A good tip is to include your leaders in your internal communications strategy to build more trust. Employees are more likely to be engaged if they trust their senior leadership, and that trust is built with frequent communication and leadership’s show of decisiveness, support and expertise. 

U is for user experience 

Many employers opt for implementation of employee recognition solutions in order to improve employee engagement. However, what they must be mindful of is how employees adopt this new solution. In other words – you will not engage employees if you provide them outdated technology! This is true for both employee recognition software as is for other technology you provide to your employees in the workplace. 

⚡ Get our employee recognition and rewards software buyers guide to choose the solution best suited to your company and employees. 

V is for values 

The rate of employee engagement ultimately depends on how aligned your employees’ behavior is with your company’s vision and values. Make sure to communicate your company’s vision and values from the recruitment phase and align your recognition program’s goals to reflect them. 

X is for eXperience 

Driving employee engagement goes hand in hand with optimizing employee experience. By taking care of one, you will also be taking care of other. However, employee experience is a wider term, and it encompasses more than just engagement. 

⚡ Learn more about employee experience and its benefits. 

Y is for you 

Yes – you! If you are reading this article, chances are you know how important employee engagement is and you want to improve the state of it in your company. This goal seems hard to achieve, and you sometimes may lose your confidence. We advise you take care of yourself first! Take a lesson out of your own book and prevent burnout by slowing down, and then come back to work refreshed and ready to tackle employee engagement issues. 

W is for wellbeing 

Employers are realizing the power of employee wellbeing more and more. In order to be most productive and engaged, employees need to take enough sleep, eat healthy and be stress-free. Therefore, employers started investing in their employees’ wellbeing by offering healthy food at work or free gym memberships, by offering additional healthcare plans and teaching meditation. 

As a matter of fact, 85% of employers say that an employee wellbeing program has a high impact on employee engagement, recruitment, retention and company culture. 

Z is for zest 

Let’s face it – you want to see zest in your employees. You want their eyes to sparkle when discussing work and to feel that enthusiasm in their workplace attitude. To incite this intense employee engagement level, you need to step up the entire experience along the employee journey. 

⚡ As we mentioned earlier, one of the most effective ways to start increasing your employee engagement is to introduce best employee recognition practices into your routine. Therefore, get this report to learn all about maximizing the ROI of your employee recognition in 2021 and beyond.