It’s generally accepted that happy workers tend to be more productive, which in turn produces greater output and increased revenue.
But how can businesses keep employees happy and engaged?
Here are 7 top tips for encouraging employee engagement and creating a motivated, engaged and productive workforce through the use of your business intranet:
Recognise Hard Work with Enterprise Social Networking Tools
If employees perform well, their efforts should be recognised. Gratitude for a job well done can be easily achieved through various intranet tools. One such tool, which has been the subject of debate in recent times, is enterprise social networking (ESN).
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Creating a dedicated ESN channel where all employees – not just managers – can thank staff for their efforts is a wonderful way to use this social tool. Employees can be recognised for going the extra mile for customers and for demonstrating company values. These clear examples will influence other employees’ behaviour, boost employee engagement, and act as a guide for new employees entering the business in the office or as part of a remote team.
Training and Personal Development Intranet Tools
It’s important for a business attempting to keep its employees engaged to recognise the need to support professional development on an individual basis. Employees want to continuously develop within their workplace and learn new skills.
This can be achieved on a cost-effective basis by creating online courses using intranet learning management tools. Subject-matter experts across all departments can create learning materials, which can be turned into interactive courses. These tools encourage employees to take control of their own learning and development.
Electronic Employee Suggestion Forms Improve Employee Engagement
If employees have concerns or suggestions, there must be channels available to voice their views. Suggestion forms can be created on the business intranet using an e-form and workflow builder.
Each suggestion can progress through a predefined workflow to ensure that it has been seen by the necessary people. In doing so, management can begin to open up conversations and encourage discussions which in turn drive employee engagement.
In a similar vein, if you ask employees for their feedback and suggestions, you must have the intention of acting upon these, or at the very least, plan to issue a response. One of the biggest failures of internal communication and your employee engagement strategy is when staff feel that they’re not listened to.
Keep Employees Updated and Informed with Intranet News
As simple as it may sound, keeping employees updated and informed of company-wide matters will go a long way to making them feel valued and will encourage them to engage. This can, in turn, boost employee morale and satisfaction. Using two-way communication channels such as intranet news articles and enabling employee feedback will create a culture of openness. This is also a terrific opportunity to dispel misconceptions and provide clarity.
Involve Employees in Decision Making
It’s inevitable that major business decisions will be made by the management team, but ensure you provide non-management level employees with autonomy, wherever possible. Giving teams an opportunity to get involved to help shape the business’ future will empower employees, improve employee engagement, and boost morale.
Intranet collaboration spaces with dedicated topics or themes will provide staff with the ability to put forward their views. As well as experiencing the benefits of engaged employees, businesses will also benefit from new ideas and perspectives.
Build your company culture with organised fun company events
Fun company ideas can include:
- Employee barbecues
- Raffles and competitions
- Early finish on Fridays
- Baking contests
Share forthcoming company events and issue invitations using your intranet communication tools. You can also use the survey and poll applications to allow employees to vote for their preferred event.
Celebrate the employee of the month though your company intranet
Use your digital workplace to enable team members to vote for their employee of the month. Staff will look forward to casting their votes and the possibility of gaining an award. For employees who have gained the most votes, they will experience a boost in confidence, and it will reinforce positive behaviour throughout the entire workforce.
