4 ways to increase employee engagement in a WFH world

Employees are more disengaged than ever before. This leads to issues such as lower productivity, less collaboration and dissatisfied workers who may leave the company. Employees working remotely have a multitude of distractions from work. Constant communication is key, and emails don’t work.

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Companies have a responsibility to help employees navigate this new virtual world. Here are four ways our employer clients improved employee engagement and well-being:

1. Make company communication mobile

Let’s face it. Employees get bombarded with hundreds of emails a day and they tend to skip HR emails. An easy way to get your information noticed is by finding an app that sends out push notifications.

The average person spends 5.4 hours a day on their phone, meaning they get the majority of information from different apps. Employees don’t want to take the time to seek out company information on a company intranet, but are more likely to engage with push notifications. If the app you choose can be a full service end to end app that helps employees look at paystubs, file claims, review HR documents and even call a doctor, then you’re on to something.

2. Check-in with employees

The shift to remote work may cause your employees to feel out of sync. Are they overwhelmed? Is there something you can provide to help with productivity and ease stress levels? An easy way to check-in is through surveys asking how the company can help. Be sure to follow-up with suggestions received so employees know their voices are heard and ideas considered. Throw an incentive in for taking the surveys, such as winning gift cards, to encourage responses. Tie the survey in with your mobile communications to allow employees to fill it out directly from their phones and inform them of the ideas being implemented.

3. Virtual happy hours

The biggest upside to being at work physically is the ability to interact with coworkers. But right now, the only interaction they have is through Zoom meetings. When employees can build relationships, it leads to better collaboration, happier employees and open lines of communication. A fun way to keep employees interacting is through virtual happy hours or “fun” meetings. It’s a stress-free way to allow employees to hang out and talk about their lives outside of work. Having different themed meetings or even “game-type” meetings, such as trivia, helps encourage employee engagement and bonding.

4. Encourage company wellness programs

Healthy employees tend to be the happiest employees. Why not create wellness programs to encourage friendly competition and promote a healthy lifestyle? Setting up Fitbit step or Apple watch health challenges is an easy way to get employees to join in on the fun. Consider letting employees create challenges to ensure it’s something they would be interested in. Including incentives will boost engagement and create a fun workplace culture.