The case for working to improve employee engagement has been made, and companies globally are getting on board with making strategic HR changes in order to engage their workforce. The results speak for themselves: ADP has found that companies with highly engaged employees produce on average 26% higher revenue per employee.[i] Alongside this comes improved recruitment and retention, ensuring a competitive and skilled workforce.

The question, then, is what should organisations do and what should they avoid in order to maximise engagement?  Here are some of my top tips.

Performance tracking

Do:  monitor the progression and successes of an employee. This is highly valuable, as it ensures the individual feels that their good work is noticed. In fact, it has been established that potential future employees are more attracted to brands with a strong reputation for rewarding performance, a good career trajectory and a collaborative culture.[ii] 

Don’t: permanently scrutinise your employees. There is a careful balance between making sure employees feel that that their progression is noticed and valued, and creating a culture of examination, in which they feel on edge.

Offering a challenging and diverse role

Do: ensure that employees are given a variety of work, and that they feel challenged within their role. ADP has found that 24% of European workers name a diverse role as their key motivating factor at work.[iii] By offering a dynamic role, you can ensure that employees are becoming more rounded and skilled, and prevent boredom damaging their work ethic.

Don’t: allow workers to feel overloaded. Work-related stress, and the health problems associated with it, is a major problem for corporations. 44% of workers admit to often experiencing stress, while 5% are considering leaving their job as a result.[iv] Shockingly, however, a quarter of European employees state that their employer does nothing to help them manage their stress. Helping employees through suggesting activities that promote mindfulness, encourage exercise, and movement throughout the day as well as arranging team-bonding activities are just some of the ways an organisation can act to reduce stress.

Flexible working

Do: offer some remote working and leniency for flexible hours. Advances in technology mean that it is now easier than ever to adapt to the needs of the workforce. For instance, mobile technology allows parents to pick their children up from school but continue their work in their own time, ensuring a greater work-life balance.  As many as a third of European workers would like to have totally flexible working hours – suggesting that in order to attract future talent, companies must enable workers to have at least some flexibility in choosing when and where they work. [v]

Don’t: make them feel that they cannot switch off. It can be hard to reap the rewards of technology without producing an ‘always on’ culture. The blurring of lines between home and work is encouraged by modern technology, and it is the job of HR professionals to ensure that technology is only used in its capacity as a helpful tool, not as something that permits work to infiltrate the personal lives of employees.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Do: engage your workforce in CSR. It’s not just consumers that are attracted to brands that they admire, but employees too – particularly millennials. As 75% of the workforce will consist of young millennials by 2025, it is vital that companies cater to their interests in order to compete for future talent.[vi] PwC, in their millennial report, found that just over half are attracted to employers with CSR values that matched their own.[vii] Here at ADP, we encourage our employees to get involved with the local community. For instance, 30 of our associates tried out sleeping rough on the 14^th October in aid of Step by Step. Our more artistically inclined also spent a day building and painting playhouses for a local children’s charity.

Don’t: force employees to get involved, as the impetus should come from them to make a difference. Ensure that you commit to a cause that your workforce can back, such as one that benefits the local community, and let them have fun with it in their own way.

Whilst the landscape of employee engagement can be complex to navigate, strategic planning within these do’s and don’ts can help to ensure that individuals feel stimulated and cared for at work, encouraging an atmosphere of collaboration and productivity.