With the countless job opportunities in busy cities like New York City and its surrounding areas, companies have to compete for their share of the area’s talented employees. Since prospective employees have many options as to where they can find work, it’s important for your business to offer something that sets you apart from the competition. Beyond securing new talent, it’s essential to keep your current employees happy, as they are the gears that keep your company moving forward.
Employee Engagement is a real issue in the workplace. Leaders are struggling to find ways to increase engagement and create a higher performing team. Engagement doesn’t just affect the happiness of employees. It’s much more than that.
Checking the studies will show that engaged employees will work harder and enjoy being at work much more. Because of this, it isn’t surprising to find that research shows companies with engaged employees outperform companies without by 202%.
If you’re keeping track, that adds up to a lot of bottom dollars! You’re going to need many employee engagement activities on which you can focus in order to maintain a high level of engagement.
Luckily, there’s an answer on how to ramp up engagement and make sure your employees are happy, healthy and eager to be there. There are a few things you can do to achieve the ideal workplace and create an environment of success. These are some employee engagement activities that will help you to increase the engagement in your workplace.
Properly Onboard New Employees
New employees cost a company money, and if they are not properly acclimated, they’ll continue to cost money and issues. Make sure your newbies feel comfortable in their fresh environment. Set them up properly.
Get your new employees the technology they need for their job. Have IT quickly assign a laptop and an email address. Ensure they know how to get access to the software and programs they will need to do the job they were hired to do.
Host a new employee lunch. Having a manager or leader take the time to answer questions in an informal way, such as over a BLT at the local deli, is an excellent way to create a feeling of acceptance and importance for this new employee or employees.
Offer a new employee handbook. Reach out to the fresher faces at the firm and ask what should be included. Edit and revise as you hire new talent. Keep it up-to-date and relevant. Make it attractive and interesting to read.
Check in with new employees regularly to see how they’re adjusting. Set up a reminder in your calendar to formally or informally reach out to the most recent freshman class and ask how it’s going. This level of attention shows that you care, are available to help and can go a long way.
Create a meet-and-greet or bring the new hires around to meet the whole team. Offer information on who completes which role and where their desks or workspaces are located. Get to know your new hires’ strengths and weaknesses.
An interview will only take you so far. Administer a survey or sit down and chat more at length once they’ve signed on the dotted line and are feeling less nervous (as they may feel in an interview). Make sure the role and team you’ve carved out for each of them will work.
You are counting on them to be successful; make sure to set them up for it. Provide a mentor or friend for each new employee. Is there a person who is friendly and helpful? Choose someone that will reach out and provide a positive face for the people of the company.
Your newbies will need to know where the best snacks are located, which restroom is closest, where the best lunch spots are, which vendors are most helpful, and the rest of the “lay-of-the-land” issues that get missed in the overall orientation.
This mentor will be someone your new hire can go to with questions that need answering without having to reach out to a leader or manager first. This relationship can be the beginning of a friendship! Employee engagement activities that focus on the new employees will increase overall engagement one hire at a time.
Hire for Company Culture Fit
Hiring the right people for the job is one of the most important tasks of a leader. It may seem prudent to fill a space as quickly as you can, but often it is better to wait until you find the perfect person than to settle for someone mediocre.
Before the interviews, define for yourself and your interview team what it is you are really looking for. What is your “dream employee” for that position?
Identify a list of questions that will help you identify if the interviewee fits your needs. Don’t shy away from tough questions. It’s important to see the real person behind the façade of an interview face.
Pay attention to the questions they ask you. Do they focus on menial, not important issues? Or do they seem eager to know more about the position?
You want an employee that is excited from day one about the job he or she will be asked to do. Is this just a paycheck or is it a calling? Consider the team the interviewee could possibly be joining. Is she or he a good fit?
Do they share similar goals and work ethic? If appropriate, consider consulting the team on the interviewees. Perhaps ask one to join the interviews to create a sense of buy-in.
Company Culture and Values Should Be Practiced from the Top
Identify ways to increase engagement at the top with these employee engagement activities. Quality engagement and all other quality practices begin at the top.
Look at the leadership of your company. Start with the senior leaders of the company. Do they practice a positive company culture?
Do they model the values of the company? If they preach positive workplace language, do they yell and react negatively to situations? This is an important place to begin. The individuals in leadership roles should always make sure to practice what they preach.
Paying attention to these details and offering feedback can really help. Restructure, if needed. The importance of the top brass buying-in to the mission and vision is so important that a company needs each of their leaders to be on board…100%.
Celebrate with Your Team
Celebrations can make work feel like a second home and the people that share that home feel like a second family. Celebrate birthdays and special events. Maybe have a monthly birthday celebration. Everyone can bring in treats to celebrate those born in that month.
Perhaps organize a happy hour to acknowledge an important event in the employees’ lives. Think about the small things that are big to your employees.
Did they complete a degree? Finish a tough training? Celebrate an anniversary? Sell a home? Move a child to college? Run a marathon? These things matter in their lives and acknowledging them can go a long way.
Make your employees feel special by simply checking in on them. Ask how their new home-building is going. Inquire about their partner’s new job. Similarly to how doctors write notes in a patient’s chart to make connections with patients, a manager can make notes to check-in with employees to make them feel as though they matter…because they do!
Have Open Communication with Regular Feedback – on Both Ends
Ask any married couple that has put in the years…communication is key! This is no different in the daily life of a business. Offer regular performance reviews of employees.
Good employees want to know how they are performing and the feedback given to them is important! Include any data you have to back up your review, positive or not. If you don’t already, create a way to track the progress of employees.
Quantitative data is very effective to communicate the progress of a person’s performance. Just don’t get lost in it – a person is not just a set of numbers! Similarly, administer surveys that allow for the company’s employees to offer feedback to you.
Sharing this information can go a long way, especially in shaping the way you and other leaders and managers interact and react to employees.
Employee engagement activities that focus on communication are beneficial not just for engagement but can directly affect productivity. Giving employees the opportunity to share their opinions can ultimately make them feel more involved!
Keep a Positive Relationship between Employees and Top Management
There should be a positive relationship between the employees and leaders in order to create a more open and honest communication.
Reflect on how you honestly feel towards your employees. This true feeling is most likely resonating with the masses. Your care and concern needs to be genuine.
Be a boss that your employees can trust. Say what you mean and mean what you say. Follow through on promises and deadlines. Be present in their lives and visible where they are.
Walk around and manage by your presence. Ask questions and offer genuine compliments. Implement these employee engagement activities that show you care about how they feel when they are at work.
Practice Recognition
Recognition goes a long way in making a person feel appreciated and employees that feel appreciated are more engaged. This will lead to higher motivation and greater productivity.
Celebrate the achievements of your employees. Did someone complete a project that required a good deal of planning and preparation? How about that employee that performed a training and completely rocked it?
Acknowledge them. A public thank you and a compliment can make them feel appreciated. Encourage your employees to go above and beyond by showing your admiration for those that do. Assign quality, delicate tasks to those you know will complete them well.
Simple gestures like keeping your break room full of delicious snacks and caffeinated drinks will keep your employees energized and productive. They will enjoy being able to find their coffee fix without leaving the office. You may also want to consider updating your break room if it’s outdated so that it can become a fun, inviting place to accommodate your employees. If you’re located in NYC or an area nearby, there are companies who can design and customize your New York City break room to be everything you’d dreaming of and more.
Have Team Bonding Activities
Some of the most important (and fun!) employee engagement activities are team bonding opportunities. This will create a close-knit group of individuals who genuinely enjoy working with one another.
Team bonding activities can boost job satisfaction and engagement immensely. Plan social events. Organize an in-office happy hour on Friday at 3:00 pm. Take the day and go to a ball game, bowling, or some other local attraction.
Volunteer together. Altruism brings people together. Organize (or have the group organize) an outing to a homeless shelter, soup kitchen, elementary school, or retirement home.
Perform service together and learn about the institution you are serving while also creating an opportunity to bond outside of the workplace. Raise money for a charity by hosting fun events within the workplace and then go out to a dinner to finish the day with some fun!
Promote Perks That Boost Mental and Physical Wellbeing
A work-life balance is seriously important when encouraging employee engagement. Some quality employee engagement activities include promoting a healthy work-life balance. Invest in a health and wellness program.
Contact your health insurance for guidance with this. They have a reason to encourage this as well. There are companies that will contract and provide this for you.
By encouraging health and wellness, you will lower insurance costs and increase healthy and happy employees. Provide yoga or other wellness lessons. Host early morning or afternoon or even lunchtime classes that employees can attend.
By making it fun and accessible, they are more likely to participate. Ensure your employees have access to healthy snacks. Take away the stress of finding something healthy to eat by providing it for them. This will go a long way in busy cities where running an errand or finding a quick bite to eat can take longer than anticipated.
You may want to consider hiring a company to provide healthy snacks to your New York City office. This is a stress-free way to increase company culture. Many companies are going toward unlimited vacation days.
For employees that are engaged in their work and complete their projects on time, this is an incredible benefit. It’s a win-win. You know your engaged employees will complete their work and they know you care enough to allow them the time to recoup and rejuvenate.
Provide Inside Information to Your Employees
As was mentioned earlier, communication is extremely important. By sharing the ins and outs of the business, your employees will feel involved and connected with what’s going on.
Be transparent in all that you do. Share your reasons for the decisions made within the walls of the boardroom. Unless you work in a highly confidential environment, it’s important to allow the employees to be part of the decision making process.
Over-communicate with your employees if need be. When wondering what you should share, err on the side of giving more info rather than less. People want to feel a part of something, they want to know what is going on. Bring them into the fold and create a sense of belonging.
Offer a weekly newsletter containing information employees want to know. Provide info from various departments so everyone will be up-to-date.
Provide Professional Development and Opportunity to Grow
Some of the most beneficial employee engagement activities involve professional development. Employees that are engaged are eager to learn more about their craft. Provide routine and constant coaching and training.
With monthly training, your employees will expect to learn new tools of the trade on a regular basis. Working towards a goal is what keeps an employee engaged and working hard.
Training makes employees more devoted to their work on important projects that can help with their development and gives them more responsibility. Remember, employee engagement is increasingly important. Companies with high employee engagement out-perform other companies by 202%!
There are countless ways to monitor and increase engagement with the ones we have discussed here, being just a few. The time and energy given to this will be well worth the outcome in productivity!
