How to increase employee engagement? 5 ideas to increase staff performance without a pay raise

Do you want to improve employee efficiency? Looking for new ways to develop company culture? Read our list of 5 simple ways to engage and motivate your employees.

Corporate communication, or internal communication, is a key part of running any business. Errors in the process of internal communications lead to the failure of the company's business processes. The inability of a company to transform and adapt at any time, but especially during a pandemic, leads to problems such as lowered engagement, reduced employee performance, slow adaptation and high staff turnover.

Many managers mistakenly believe that motivating employees necessarily requires a large financial outlay. Salary increases, bonuses, and company events are the usual, and for many, the only ways to influence the efficiency of employees.

But we suggest not forgetting about employee engagement. This metric is familiar to many HR professionals, but not everyone understands its importance. In fact, employee engagement affects key business metrics: profitability, employee performance, customer satisfaction, and product quality. According to Gallup, organizations with high engagement are on average 23% more profitable, and the efficiency of their salespeople is 18% higher than in companies with unengaged employees.

We see that engagement affects the same aspects of a business as staff motivation. At the same time, it also implies loyalty to the company and personal concern for its success. An engaged employee will be willing to do extra work and recommend the organization as an employer to their acquaintances.

It may not be obvious, but the motivation of the staff directly depends on the results of their work. If employees see that their product helps customers, and understand the value of the company's success, then their engagement will increase. To do this, the internal communication team should focus on the results and achievements of the company. Share interesting customer cases, major product updates and popular media mentions. Employees should be proud of their company and value their workplace. And increased efficiency comes with that.

When an employee can approach a manager with a problem or suggestion, knowing that they will be heard and helped, they feel valued by the organization and are motivated to work harder. We recommend conducting regular employee surveys to find out their feelings in the workplace, as well as having personal conversations with employees at least once a year.

It is also important to consider the received comments and suggestions, bring them to the person responsible and promote their implementation. Then the staff will feel that they can really influence the work process and will be more engaged.

Company executives best understand the goals and how to achieve them. At the same time, due to various reasons, this information may not reach staff or reach them in a distorted form. As a result, employees don't understand the value of their work and their motivation is lower.

To prevent this, you need to choose a communication format that suits the person and the size of the company (video format works best, but text or another format can be used), and establish regular communication with the team. Employees will feel like an important part of the company, understand the importance of their contribution to the common goal, and will also have greater respect for management.

Recognition and praise don't have to be material to be effective. Great company culture should encourage any useful or effective solutions. Employees should receive credit for their achievements from their peers, managers, and supervisors. This way they will be more engaged.

It can be a good practice to exchange thank you cards. At the end of the day, week or month, colleagues can send each other cards with gratitude and a brief description of the praised action. It will not take much time for employees, but it will give motivation and positive emotions.

Properly planned and conducted adaptation allows you to retain up to 82% more employees, who would have left due to badly implemented onboarding (or lack of it).

It is not enough to simply explain to a new colleague his job responsibilities and show them new workplace. The employee must learn about corporate culture and values, understand who to ask for help, get to know colleagues from different departments, and get a data source with detailed information. You can read our article about onboarding here.

Workstories is a platform for internal communications in Stories format. Any corporate content can be transformed into Stories and shared with all employees on computers, smartphones or TV panels in the office. Workstories will save your time on content distribution. And the staff will appreciate the familiar and simple content format that does not require much time to consume. Company announcements will be seen by up to 100% of employees and boost their engagement.

Learn more about our platform and register now to try Workstories for free.