8 tips to get (and keep) your employees engaged even during hard times [infographic]

As we’re navigating this new “normal” and many of us are still working from home, it’s never been a better time to ensure your employees are engaged with their work and your company as a whole.

In a time where spouses, children, pets, and roommates are becoming coworkers, everyone is facing challenges they’ve never experienced in the workplace. 

Feeling stressed, overwhelmed, or distracted can appear without a moment’s notice. 

As managers and leaders, don’t let this get the best of your team. Use this time to remind your team of their value and move your organization forward!

Employees with higher levels of engagement are less likely to leave their employers, but they also perform at a higher level. 

In fact, a recent infographic from WebFX (shared below) reported the following:

• Companies with high levels of engagement find their employees are 21% more productive and their company is 22% more profitable. 
• They also see a lower turnover rate by 65% and lower absenteeism. 

Clearly, engagement is essential to the success of your team, but how can you do it well?

Things you can do to increase your employee engagement rate

1. Encourage employees to build social connections with each other

Most people spend roughly a third of their life working — that’s about 90,000 hours! 

If you’re spending that much time at work, building connections beyond the professional is key. 

WebFX found that 88% of employees rate their relationships with coworkers as important to their job satisfaction. 

So, what are you doing to encourage those social connections?

With COVID-19, it’s hard for those relationships to naturally occur around the proverbial “watercooler” or even while interacting around the office.

Despite everything that’s happening or if you normally have a partial or fully remote team, there are activities and/or tools you can implement or encourage to help foster those connections. 

Here at IMPACT, we’ve implemented a long list of remote team building activities during our coronavirus quarantine.

Some of our activities include:

• IMPACT Cribs, which is our twist on MTV Cribs, where team members give team members a tour of their house. While we might not have multiple luxury cars sitting in our driveways, it’s another way for your employees to invite each other into their homes.
• Video coffee chats: We’ve done these for a while, but we’ve increased the frequency to ensure team members are staying connected. If you want to learn more, check out the tool Donut.
• Virtual happy hours! While we might not all be working from the same office/location, that doesn’t mean you can’t grab a drink after work. Simply share a Zoom link, grab a drink, play some soft music, and get to know your coworkers.
• Employee Spotlights: These are video segments where we have team members show us or talk about something they’re passionate about. We’ve had team members show us how to make Jamaican fried dumplings, kombucha, and even sauerkraut.
• Exercise classes: While being home, staying active has never been more important. We had a team member volunteer to lead a virtual yoga class every week. 

With more people working from home, there’s been a bigger focus on tools for helping people stay connected. Consider checking out Jackbox games, The Go Game or there are even virtual escape rooms for those who love a challenge.

2. Have strong, vocal leadership

Having a strong leader or leadership team is extremely important in keeping employees engaged, especially now. 

With so much uncertainty, having someone guiding the ship and having your best interests in mind speaks volumes not only about the leader but the company in general. 

Strong leaders step-up, provide answers, and be transparent about what’s going on. 

This helps employees feel more involved and committed. 

Good leaders have the ability to calm and unify their team. 

With all of this in mind, we have implemented additional ways for our leadership and management to communicate with employees while social distancing such as “town hall meetings” and a daily newsletter. 

This helps everyone feel in the loop not only with COVID-19 and how it could affect them personally but how it’s impacting our business and what we’re doing to weather the storm. 

While it might not always be the easiest conversations, being honest and transparent can go a long way. Oftentimes, that honesty and display of awareness on how the situation is impacting your employees can have a positive effect on their engagement and productivity. 

3. Show your employee’s their career path and how they can grow

There’s nothing worse than an employee feeling like they’ve gone as far as they can at your company, and that there’s no more room for growth or improvement.

Sadly it can be the cause for many employees disengaging or not staying at a company. 

Be sure to invest in the necessary resources and tools to help your employees grow and improve their skills. 

Consider having regular one-on-one meetings between employees and managers to check-in and discuss long-term visions. Not only can you use this time to get a pulse on how they are feeling but to review their career paths and areas for improvement. 

It’s important to note that there are always areas of growth for everyone in the company, whether you’re the CEO, a manager, or an employee. 

If you don’t already, think about developing company and role-based criteria that can be used to measure performance but also highlight areas of growth.

Be sure to check out WebFX’s full infographic on the eight ways you can improve employee engagement rates at your company below.