Imagine signing out of work right on time, keeping your work chat notifications turned off over holidays and the weekend, and not replying to emails during your time off?
Imagine taking a proper lunch break that is without any work distractions and taking regular breaks in between work. If all of this sounds a little too idealistic, this article is for you.
Despite organizations talking about work-life balance, work is often the clear priority, putting life in the backseat. Employees that prioritize personal wellbeing are more worried about not getting their promotion, not being recognized for their achievements, and in general feeling like it would impact their career.
The outcome? Burnout.
But that’s not the worst of it. As burnout becomes a reality, you’ll notice your people begin participating in trends that aren’t the most conducive to morale at work such as “acting their wage” or simply presenteeism.
This results in a loss in productivity as the overwhelming nature of work leads them to feel disengaged.
So, what can you do? As it turns out, plenty!
Here are 5 easy strategies to help your employees bounce back, feel engaged at work once again, and be more productive.
1. Use gamification
Make work feel a little less like … work!
Gamification can help your employees enjoy the tasks they do and celebrate their accomplishments. All you need to do is set up achievements and rewards, encouraging teams and individuals alike to work towards the finish line.
You can use gamification to encourage employees to participate in certain everyday behavior (example: sign in before time for 10 consecutive days and win some time off) or make arduous tasks feel more like an accomplishment with similar rewards (example: win an Amazon gift voucher for every big task they accomplish before time).
This encourages employees to see each challenge from a problem-solving lens rather than as a problem in itself.
For smaller tasks, you can even create a raffle system, encouraging employees to participate for a chance to win something (example: if you want your employees to re-post some things on their personal social media accounts, make every story count as an entry for a raffle ticket!)
2. Create a culture of feedback
What do your people really think? Simply asking isn’t always going to get you honest answers.
Instead, you need to create a safe environment for honest feedback by assuring employees of their anonymity. Trust takes time to build, but once you win over your employees, you will be rewarded with genuine, valuable feedback that will help your organization prosper.
3. Encourage employees to take risks
One of the biggest failings in many organizations is making it impossible for employees to fail.
Imagine being punished for every little mistake you make. This makes taking risks virtually impossible – after all, what if things go wrong?
The problem with this is: experimentation paves the way to innovation. If your employees are unable to fail, they will not be able to take your organization to the next level.
So, if you want an environment where your employees feel empowered to do more, you need to create it.
Begin by encouraging employees to take risks. And when they do, have their back. Make it a safe space to fail (within reason), so your employees aren’t scared, but instead empowered, to do more.
4. Be transparent
Make employees feel like they truly are a part of your organization. Keep them informed about big changes within the company. Ask for their opinions and feedback – and acknowledge what they say.
Make an effort to act on what your employees are saying while being candid about your perspective and your reality.
Transparency allows employees to understand where you’re coming from, often eliciting empathy. It also builds trust and loyalty as employees feel like more than just another cog in the wheel. Instead, they feel like they are a part of the organization.
5. Emulate work-life balance
No article about employee engagement is complete without talking about the elephant in the room: work-life balance.
Sure, plenty of organizations talk about work-life integration. But the truth is, the balance is essential for the long-term productivity of your employees. Encouraging this balance allows your employees to nurture their personal development and wellbeing alongside their professional demands.
But simply nudging a work-life balance isn’t enough. You can start by emulating it in your own life. If you aren’t taking time off work, your team will likely feel awkward going home when the day is done as well.
Transform your work culture
While there is no one-size fits all approach to improving employee engagement at work, these five ways – implement all together – gives you a great start. Need a little more? Here’s an employee engagement checklist – answer these questions for yourself, and you’ll get a fair idea to get started.
The next step is to understand where you stand in each of these aspects according to your employees.
So, reach out to your employees with an anonymous survey to understand just how your organization fares. Do they feel heard and supported? Are they comfortable taking risks? Do they feel your organization is transparent enough, or are they operating in silos? Do they feel comfortable balancing work and life?
It’s only with the right insights that you will be able to create an employee engagement strategy with the right employee experience software that works for your organization.
If you feel like your employees will be more candid when the survey is conducted by an external organization, Sogolytics offers fully-managed survey projects so you can get the answers you need.
Ready? Get started with creating a work culture your employees love!