5 practical ways to quickly boost employee engagement

  
The new annual Gallup study shows that employee engagement in the USA is at a ten-year low. In Europe it remains lower still.

We hear about ‘The Great Detachment’ and, post 2022 and coined by some labour economists, ‘The Great Stay’. We see in every corner of the media that people aren’t satisfied with their working lives, but they aren’t leaving either.  

Employers and team leaders have their work cut out!  If The Great Stay (a growing reluctance to switch jobs because of anxiety about layoffs, burnout and economic instability) is here to stay (for now), then how can leaders and managers boost morale and lift spirits as soon as possible?

Macro, longer-term solutions may involve reviewing professional growth and cross-training opportunities, actively supporting career development and improving personalised learning programmes, making work processes smoother, creating a more supportive workplace culture, reviewing workplace benefits…and more.

But how we can help people feel more connected RIGHT NOW?  

We’ve compiled five suggestions that we know have worked with our clients in recent years.  

With job satisfaction, a lot rides on how we communicate. Some of the ideas here can form small, immediate micro-shifts for you and your team, or they can be the start of something bigger, collaborating closely with HR.  

Could you commit to one or more of these localised changes in the next month, maybe even in the next week?  

1. As a team leader, thank a colleague outside of a review process

Remind them how important their contribution is to organisational goals. Listen closely to concerns that may be holding them back. Private and public recognition goes a long way to lifting team energy, and it can be easy to let it slip when there’s relentless time and workload pressure.

2. Ask yourself, “how does my communication style land for different team members”?

Commit yourself to exploring how it feels to be on the receiving end of you. What small changes could you make?

3. Take a closer look at how well people communicate in your team

This includes you. Consider what you can do to reconnect people and bring back the zest. Are people interacting as well as they should? Do they respect and appreciate each other’s communication styles and know how and when to flex? Consider bringing in experts to improve self-awareness, explore the impact of low self-awareness on team morale and improve communication within the team

4. Identify and address common barriers to communication in your team

Take a moment to recognise (and seek internal or external help to address) the most common barriers to communication at work. It's critical to address any points of friction, because over the long term, these barriers impact connection and team cohesion.

5. Make employee engagement a priority in your team

Not just an ongoing company or organisational box-ticking initiative. This should start at the onboarding stage and be reviewed regularly, especially if you sense that morale is slipping.  

We can do this in many ways…here are six to consider:

• Help people feel more personally connected to organisational goals. What difference does their work make and to whom? Do you have an effective way to communicate this?  
• Help them understand the ‘why’? of any incoming changes, whether it’s about new leaders, integrating unfamiliar, uncharted AI programmes or new team structures and processes. Where possible, involve them in parts of the decision-making processes around change.  
• Seek their feedback and secure senior buy-in to act on the feedback in meaningful ways – not just when change is happening, but as an integral part of your workplace culture. Do your team members feel listened to and able to be honest about what’s affecting their motivation levels? Do you a system in place for checking in on this?
• Create a collaborative environment. Experiment with bespoke teambuilding activities that reconnect the personalities in your team to each other and to their shared ‘workplace’ goals and allow breathing space to reconnect and reset if momentum has felt stagnant.
• Support managers to support their team’s mental well-being – not everyone knows how to navigate the complexity of human emotions, barriers to progress or self-limiting beliefs the minute they become a manager. Yes, we’re in a professional setting, but we can’t always compartmentalise ourselves neatly into home and work, especially when disruptive ‘life  moments’ happen. Consider outside help to support managers with this if it feels beyond reach.
• Offer discretionary flexibility in how people work (within the parameters of the organisation’s RTO guidance – currently a whole topic in itself!)

The success of these ideas we’ve shared here will depend on how much freedom you feel you have as a leader or manager to introduce micro-shifts in how the team approaches workplace life. But the bottom line is, we’re all human, we all have good and bad days and like to feel understood, and you can be sure that more team-awareness and self-awareness can go a long way.  

High performing teams are non-negotiable for successful organisations. Insights Discovering Team Effectiveness helps you tackle your most pressing team challenges on two fronts: how your team likes to work together and how well they work together. It provides practical and sustainable tools to help your teams collaborate effectively for success today and long into the future.