25 ways to use employee engagement to improve motivation levels – Part 1

Are your employees motivated and enthusiastic about coming into work every day? Are they aligned with the business goals and objectives?

If not then you should consider a variety of techniques aimed at improving employee engagement in order to benefit from a knock on effect on motivation levels. We’ve got 25 ways you can implement employee engagement boosting initiatives in your organisation motivate your employees. 

1. Share crucial company information

Don’t keep your employees in the dark about the business’ goals, objectives, strategic direction and financial performance. If you take the time to explain what it means for them and their jobs, then they will feel involved in the business and its goals.

2. Clearly define what’s expected of your employees

Ensure your employees understand what is expected of them, both as a team and individually. This includes letting employees know what is expected of them as part of their day-to-day role, and on individual projects and tasks.

3. Don’t sugar-coat bad news

Sometimes you need to communicate bad news. When this happens be upfront and honest, and explain why this is happening. By doing so you’ll build trust.

4. Be consistent with your employees

You still need to treat your employees as individuals, but don’t play, or be seen to play, favourites by making sure you treat all your employees in a consistent manner.

5. Walk the talk

Set a good example and live up to the standards you ask your employees to achieve. Be willing to pitch in and help, own up to mistakes and be on time, and by doing so you’ll encourage the same behaviour from your employees.

6. Seek feedback

Make it easy for your employees to give you feedback and share their ideas, by having an open door and an open mind. Encourage your employees, especially the less confident indivduals, to offer feedback and allow them to make it anonymous if they wish.

7. Get to know your team

Talk to your employees individually and get to know them, so that you can relate to them and identify what motivates them. As well as talking about work, make an effort to find out about their personal interests and commitments.

8. Don’t play the blame game

Let your employees know that it’s encouraged to come up and try new ideas. But, if it doesn’t go as well as planned don’t start pointing fingers, instead work with them to find out what went wrong, and what can be learned for next time.

9. Talk about their career aspirations

Find out what your individual employees want to achieve in their career, and then work together on a plan that will help them achieve their ambitions.

10. Encourage your employees to challenge themselves

Don’t let your employees get stuck in their comfort zone, encourage them to take on new responsibilities outside of their usual role, to help them develop new found skills and confidence.

11. Offer training and development

Encourage your employees to keep learning and developing new skills via a workplace scheme that offers training, help with tuition fees, and mentoring.

12. Promote from within first

Always try to promote from within, before you advertise a job externally. Your employees will see that there are opportunities to advance with the organisation and they’ll work hard to achieve that.

In Part 2, we’ll have an additional 13 ways to use employee engagement to increase motivation levels in your business.