Over the last 15 years I’ve seen some seriously broken employee engagement with internal surveys this whole time showing quite disappointing scores because people don’t understand what actually works. The pattern usually the same where leadership promises action that actually works but delivers generic and ineffective initiatives that have little impact in reality.
The Obsession of ticking boxes in quarterly surveys doesn’t tell and becomes simply another hurdle for employees to overcome rather than being used as a discourse for actually improvement.
So, what I’m going to share are my personal insights as to what has actually improved engagement the most in a tangible way with the businesses I’ve worked with.
Integrate the decision making at as many levels as possible.
I have found that engagement dies when people feel like they don’t have a say in what’s happening. You need to create space for even junior staff to express opinions and share ideas this also needs to be backed up with some budget to actually let them implement these initiatives I’m not saying go crazy and handing over the reins to your juniors but you need to give them space to grow and back up your trust with resources. It’s an investment that gifts genuine authority and empowers your team.
You need to integrate transparency into our Communications.
This is related to point one and it refers to hoarding information at the top. Keeping clear channels of communication from top to bottom really help with engagement flow. I have seen the concept of radical transparency used to create effect in companies with hundreds of employees. The key is to have a strong structure in place to let this information flow, obviously a teams meeting with 500 people all talking over each other isn’t going to work but a chain of communication where employees can speak to managers and have the option to ‘talk up’ to the level where change is implemented is crucial.
Bring real flexibility to the office.
This has been improving since covid and the shift to work from home but many offices are too keen to go back to the rigid nine to five model, that was outdated decades ago honestly. A work environment so rigid that it makes doctor’s appointments, bank visits and school runs logistically impossible is not a place people want to be. More so than professional flexibility is viewed as a basic expectation not a privilege or perk and if you’re too rigid it will cost you your top Talent. We worked with the company out of Canary Wharf that pivoted from a culture of ‘presenteeism’ to purely ‘outcome’ based. It involved a small number of core hours per day where everyone was available but beyond that there was a massive amount of flexibility.
This also followed through with managers who were specifically instructed to be more hands-off and facilitate progress only when engaged by an employee directly. The overall results of this initiative based on year-on-year surveys were 20% fewer sick days and an almost 25% improvement in staff retention over those 12 months.
Upgrade the physical environment
If you’re going to have your staff in an office environment you need to be trying as hard as you can to make that a nice place to be. There are of course some obvious wins you can make here with aesthetics and greenery that you can bring into the spaces but we also need to be looking at ways to bring health into the office I have spoken previously about the many benefits of office fruit and I suggest you read my post on this and if you haven’t already start and office fruit subscription box.
In the companies I have worked with that had implemented a healthy snack initiative which is of course free to the employees there is always an immediate impact where staff feel appreciated and valued over time energy levels will stabilize and the areas where the healthy snacks are provided can become a little Social Hub where a spontaneous collaboration can hit during fruit breaks it’s really not a gimmick it’s a tangible shift to Awards a reduction in your cognitive drag caused by a latent poor of nutrition that many people don’t even realize they have.
Peer-to-peer recognition.
This is arguably more important than recognition coming from management positions whilst that is important too, the kudos you receive from your peers also ‘hits differently’ (as the kids like to say now), we worked with one of the UK’s largest logistics companies and help them design appear recognition platform where any staff member could publicly acknowledge another’s contribution from within the wider team, with the most recognized employee each month choosing a charity for a company donation.
This may sound a little saccharin but you cannot argue with the results recognition levels skyrocketed across old departments from warehousing to it and quarterly surveys showed a massive improvement in the metric of feeling valued and job satisfaction.
It’s important to note that none of these Tactics that I’ve talked about requires particularly big budgets or long time lines to implement, they simply need a willing leadership who are not afraid to invest their time money and energy into their team
Founder of PTPART. 30 years’ experience in high-pressure corporate settings. MSc in Mindfulness at the University of Aberdeen
