5 ways employers can boost employee engagement

January 17, 2019
|In benefits, Employee Benefits, Employee Communication, Employee Engagement, employees, Helpful Tips, HR, HR Elements, Saxon Blog, Well-being, Wellness, workforce, Workplace
|By 6drachael

Are you looking for ways to boost employee engagement this year? According to Work Institute, employers could prevent 77 percent of turnover by improving the employee experience. Read this blog post to learn more.

With it being a new year, employers are in a unique position. Unemployment is at its lowest rate since 1969, leaving HR managers with a dearth of qualified candidates to fill open positions.

But filling current openings isn’t the only challenge HR teams face: An estimated 42 million employees will leave their jobs in 2019 in search of workplaces that better meet their needs and expectations. Turnover that significant leaves employers with only one option — focus on improving the employee experience to increase employee retention and satisfaction.

The good news is that employers could prevent 77% of that turnover, according to a study from Work Institute.

Beyond competitive pay and benefits, how do employers create an exceptional experience for their employees? By offering engaging programs, resource groups and events that enhance employee connections and develop a more thriving workplace culture.

We predict that successful companies will use a combination of the following five trends to increase employee satisfaction and improve retention in 2019.

1. Make employee experience technology easy to use

Adding workplace programs, groups and events won’t improve employee satisfaction if those offerings are difficult to access. In fact, a frustrating user experience may have the opposite effect on employees. At best, they’ll ignore the offerings.

In addition, a poor user experience also can negatively color an employee’s opinion of the organization as a whole, making them more likely to leave.

Consumer-grade interfaces on user-friendly platforms are critical for encouraging employees to participate in workplace groups and programs. When companies invest in employee groups and programs, they expect to see ROI in the form of increased engagement and satisfaction. The key to success is making participation easy.

2. Keep employee experience programs consistent across the organization

In today’s dispersed workforce, many organizations have multiple locations and remote employees. When implementing workplace programs, HR teams need to ensure that their offerings resonate with all employees across every location. Otherwise, they run the risk of isolating employees who work from home or at satellite campuses.

For example, wellness programs help improve employee health, satisfaction and engagement. But a lunchtime yoga series offered at company headquarters may make work-from-home employees feel left out.

3. Give employees more control over benefit spending

One way to boost engagement across the entire organization is to supplement in-house programs with reimbursement programs. These programs allow employees to choose how to spend a certain allowance (determined by the organization and HR) on activities to improve their own well-being, such as fitness classes or continuing education.

Giving employees this autonomy not only increases the likelihood that they’ll participate, but it also makes it easy for HR teams to distribute benefits fairly across the entire organization.

4. Streamline data to accurately track employee engagement

Already-overworked HR teams bear the burden of proving that workplace programs are improving employee engagement. Instead of trying to pull together engagement reports and employee feedback from multiple places, use a centralized platform to manage workplace programs and keep all data in one easy-to-access place.

Having participation metrics readily available makes it easy for HR teams to see which programs are working and which aren’t resonating with employees. They’re also able to deliver that information to the C-suite and make the case for additional funding where needed.

5. Devote more funding to employee resource groups

Employee resource groups (ERGs) are proven to have a positive effect on employee satisfaction, workplace morale and company diversity. They increase employee retention and improve the company’s bottom line.

Making ERGs a priority when allocating funds for the year will pay off, but only if they’re handled the right way. Using an automated platform to manage ERGs, promote events, track participation and encourage feedback saves HR teams both time and resources, giving them the opportunity to devote more time to improving the employee experience.

SOURCE: Shubat, A. (2 January 2019) “5 ways employers can boost employee engagement” (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.benefitnews.com/list/ways-employers-can-boost-employee-engagement-in-2019?feed=00000152-a2fb-d118-ab57-b3ff6e310000
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