Employee engagement strategies are not just a popular subject for discussion. They can have a significant financial impact on a business. Disengagement in the US economy is estimated to cost more than $500 billion per year! You would like to think that your workforce is committed and passionate, but is it?
For a while, it was thought that employee engagement strategies equaled things like putting ping pong tables in the break room or having meals catered. These things are nice perks, but they represent a financial investment, and sometimes they do not really pay off.
Employee engagement ultimately means that there is a connection between management and frontline employees and that everyone feels like their contribution is appreciated. One increasingly popular method of implementing employee engagement strategies is utilizing a suite of employee apps. Here are seven proven strategies for using apps to improve employee engagement.
1. A Wellness Program That Goes Where Employees Go
Employee wellness programs have been around for a while now, and most businesses that implement them believe that they have a positive impact on employee engagement as well as recruiting, retention, and the overall company culture. The wellness programs that work best are holistic, encompassing mental health, physical activity, and stress management. While there are plenty of prepackaged employee wellness apps available, none of them “knows” your team, your location, and your company culture the way you do. Wellness apps work best when they are designed specifically for the employees whose engagement the business is facilitating.
2. Surveys and Employee Suggestion Programs
Did anyone ever use those locked suggestion boxes with a slot in the top for inserting written suggestions? The idea behind them was good; often employees have excellent suggestions about how to improve the workplace. However, it is entirely too easy to let suggestion boxes go unopened and for employees to eventually not even notice they are there.
Employee suggestion apps, on the other hand, make perfect sense as a key component in a company’s employee engagement strategies. They are always available and can be set up so that whoever is in charge of receiving suggestions can be notified immediately when one arrives. What is more, push notifications can remind employees of the app and encourage them to use it.
3. Engage New Hires During Onboarding
However much hand-holding your company provides for new hires, there will be moments in those first weeks and months when a new employee forgets something, or has a question and may not know who to ask. Developing an onboarding app for new employees can offer reassurance and help your HR team learn what works during the existing onboarding program and where there is room for improvement. An onboarding app may be very simple, directing the user to the right person to answer questions, or it may help them do more complex things like review their insurance and retirement plan options.
4. Offer Training and Rewards for Completing It
Training can make or break your employee engagement strategies because employees who believe they are prepared for their tasks and ready to handle a variety of situations are going to be more confident and more likely to feel like they are making a difference. At the same time, however, not many people look forward to spending time in a training classroom watching an endless PowerPoint deck.
Fortunately, many aspects of training can be delivered by an app, and some may lend themselves to gamification, which makes training more fun while providing the repetition and reinforcement necessary to make training stick. Training apps, particularly when tied to rewards for completing levels or tasks, engage employees and prepare them better for the challenges they will face.
5. Create an App for Exploring Employee Benefits
Toward the end of the calendar year, many companies present employees with several health insurance plans from which to choose, and it is not always easy for employees to do this. An app designed specifically to help employees compare benefits for their unique family situation can be tremendously valuable.
Apps can also do things like help employees choose 401(k) investment levels, complete with calculators that show them any company matching contributions over time. Customized graphics right on their phone showing how much they will have saved by the end of the year can be far more meaningful than a generic example graph in a memo.
6. Make Collaboration Mobile and Social
Collaboration is a hot topic for businesses of all kinds. Employees represent a huge knowledge base, and when they can share their expertise with others, everyone benefits. Custom employee apps that allow collaboration and help your team members identify others with the skills and knowledge they need save time, help employees network better with each other, and can drive higher quality work, faster.
Suppose a project requires the creation of an infographic, something your company has never done before. A collaboration tool can help the project leader identify someone who made infographics at a previous job and who can offer constructive help. There are countless other ways a collaboration app can help too.
7. Ensure Organizers Are Committed to Following Through
If apps have a place in your company’s employee engagement strategies, you cannot just deploy a bunch of apps and sit back, waiting on your workforce to become more engaged. Follow-through is important. When employees use the employee suggestion app, does someone follow up? Are anonymous suggestions considered, or do they disappear into the ether?
It is important that a real human is behind each employee engagement app, not only to help ensure they will be used but to ensure that people really do get their reward when they complete the 10K race or finish the advanced training course. Without commitment and follow-up, app usage can fizzle.
The importance of employee engagement strategies cannot be overestimated. Technology allows businesses to use engagement techniques that were not even imaginable a generation ago. HubEngage offers a fully customizable platform for creating employee apps that are brimming with engagement features.
They can be made to reflect your branding, content, and culture while making employee jobs more efficient. With great features like location-based triggers, gamification, and customizable productivity and training tools, hubEngage knows how to improve employee engagement and how to help you engage your workforce with maximum effectiveness. Contact us at any time to discuss employee engagement strategies for your organization!
