Can you tell me how much time you spend at work? To be honest a lot! In fact, it has been proven that around one-third of our lives we spend at work, like it or not! So what I want to say is that most of our time is spent on bearing more work responsibilities, being adhered to tighter deadlines, catching more and more targets and what do we get in return? A big-fat promotion or a Corner office (which is one of the reasons that you might love your job). What if you get annoying coworkers or bad working conditions, working for too long for too little pay scale or an imperious boss who keeps picking at you? I am sure must have loathed such a job but was still unwilling to quit.

So how to make it better? Fortunately, at present several businesses are found treating their employees as valuable assets and not just cogs in the machine. In fact, that is the reason they have started incorporating interesting cafeterias, play areas, and gyms within the business premises so that the employees can enjoy their working hours thoroughly.  The following post focuses on what is employee engagement, how does it matter and most importantly which employee engagement platform might work for your business? Here’s how to choose the right one!

What is Employee Engagement?

Do you think the concept of employee engagement is all about simply getting along with each other? Of course, not! To be precise, it’s not just limited to having happy hours or pizza parties. It’s more about delving straight to the core of your employees. I am sure by now you must have already Googled the term and come across a wide range of listicles featuring all kinds of enthusiastic yet vague suggestions. Well, the following post is quite different from those, read away!

First and foremost, when someone asks about employee engagement. I say it’s definitely not the same as work satisfaction. There is a huge difference between the two. Of course, both engagement and work satisfaction can result in increased productivity and lead to the best possible outcomes but employee engagement is more about the emotional connection or commitment to the organization.

On and all, it’s more about making the discretionary effort as a whole instead of doing things individually. I have come across many of you complaining about their managers picking at them deliberately, poor and ineffective communication, and not understanding the mission and vision, this surely results in their lack of interest and employee engagement.

Now you must be wondering how to figure out whether your employees are successfully engaged with your business or not.

• Do you find them excited and happy while working?
• Do they stick to their roles and responsibilities willingly?
• Do they take an initiative and contribute towards achieving business goals?

 

If yes, then you have successfully implemented the concept of employee engagement within your promises but if not, it’s not too late you can do it right away! So what happens once we start implementing employee engagement strategies and practices?

• High Customer Ratings
• Increased Productivity and Profitability
• Minimize Dissatisfaction and insecurities
• Minimize absenteeism
• Quality Outcomes
• More Success Rate

Here comes the big question: how? Well, here I would like to mention certain key areas where your employee engagement strategy might work wonders.

#1 Value

Have you ever tried explaining to your employees why exactly you are commencing this business? Unless you don’t explain your mission, vision or objective they won’t give in. Come up with a succinct mission statement and try making them understand the sense of doing all this.

#2 Effective Communication

Take any industry into account whether it’s IT, healthcare, education, fashion, or hotel, effective communication is extremely important. The perks of timely communication are many, it makes everyone feel a crucial part of your organization. Also, make sure communication is a two-way street here, try conducting certain brainstorming sessions, and try to understand their point of view and implement the best approach.

#3 Health

Much like physical health, an employee’s mental health and wellness are extremely important. And all this has a direct connection with productivity and overall performance. Health is pretty basic yet one of the crucial factors that cannot be ignored. Positive health certainly leads to reduced absenteeism and makes the working environment pretty lively.

#4 Rapport and Relations

Along with mental health, healthy relationships should be pretty much appreciated especially among businesses. We are humans, friendships, and rapport building should be pretty common for us, moreover like a necessity. As a business owner, take the initiative and try to come up with social events or activities. It’s basically about creating more and more networking opportunities.

#5 Business Growth as well as Personal

Of course, business growth is pretty vital but at the same time, you must realize the fact that your employees are pretty essential as well. How about creating a learning environment within the office premises? There is no denying the fact that these programs require lots and lots of investments regarding time, and energy but in the end, they are worth giving a shot at.

Further, I would like to mention some of the best employee engagement softwares to take into account that can certainly change your fate for the long haul.

Best Employee Engagement Tools & Platforms

1.    Bonusly

Are you looking for a fun and intimidating way to keep your employees on their toes? Yes, it is possible by using Bonusly. Bonusly is available at 3$ per month and unfortunately here there are no free versions available but you can certainly choose the free trials. This one seems to be a peer-to-peer recognition platform that enhances productivity and reduces retention rates. Some of its attention-grabbing features include receiving precise metrics and employee recognition, rewards like gift cards and branded backpacks, actionable insights, connection-forming rewards, social media presence and whatnot!

2.    Ascentis

The next employee engagement platform in line is Ascentis. This one offers a touch-free time clock for secure and accurate time-tracking, payrolls with 100% accuracy, a secured portal to customize reports, real-time feedback, on-demand training, finding the right candidate at the right time, better retention, and so more! Basically, it’s a full-armed suite that acts as a one-stop solution for almost every business these days. What makes Ascentis different from others is that this one is highly customizable and secure.

3.    Empuls

With more than 1,000,000 employees loving and using Empuls, how can I skip this one here? The employee engagement platform is ISO-certified and GDPR-ready. Several renowned names such as Pepsi, Freshworks, and Redbus are found using Empuls these days. The platform offers a wide range of features and functionalities such as employee communication, surveys, recognition, rewards, remote or hybrid work functionality, enhancing experience, perks, analyzing & reporting, etc.

Apart from the aforementioned brand names, even SMBs tend to use them and try to keep their employees more aligned. Real-time feedback, great performance, and effective collaborations are some of its perks worth considering.

4.    Assembly

Another interesting employee engagement platform is Assembly. Renowned companies such as Coca-Cola, FTD, and Amazon are found making the most of this employee engagement tool. It has been awarded as one of the leading rewards and recognition platforms that enables to send of engagement forms at regular intervals and receiving feedback within a span of real-time. Here there is another interesting option for a team retrospective where they can look back at any point in time and analyze what worked and what didn’t.

5.    Nectar

The last but certainly not the least option to take into account is Nectar. This one turns out to be pretty cost-effective in comparison to all the others mentioned above. Yes, here you will find a free version or you can even choose the standard version at  $2.50 per user per month. By using such an employee engagement platform, you can make everyone feel like a family. Nectar is highly recommendable for large enterprises since here there is no contract. Some of the most attention-grabbing features of Nectar include:

●       Peer-to-Peer Recognition — I am pretty sure you must have heard about this from management but have you noticed that employees even enjoy it more when they get a fair chance to reward each other? Yes, and this is certainly possible by using the employee engagement software platform

●      Wellness Issues— Employees can be rewarded based on several wellness challenges.

●      On-Demand Prices— What is the upfront cost required? Have you ever given thought to that?  Well, you no longer have to worry since Nectar offers an on-demand swag storefront. Here all the items are shipped to the employees within a short period.

Final Word

On and all, employee engagement is an extremely important factor especially if you want to succeed as a business and stay for the long haul. We, humans, are fond of appreciation, recognition and gratitude and such approaches are sure-shot ways to provide the same. It doesn’t matter whether you are a small business or a large enterprise, the aforementioned employee engagement platforms are must-haves. You see there are times when staying in touch with employees could be a bit tricky. So that’s exactly when these employee engagement platforms work wonders. They bridge such unseen gaps in a short period.

So that’s all for now! In case, if you still have any doubts or queries, feel free to mention that in the comment section below. Also, I would request you to share the following post because it’s a shout-out for mental peace and how to make the most of your lives while working.