Businesses can also use gamification to help improve employee performance and collaboration. It makes the interaction between management and employees more fun and engaging—building trust that helps foster growth in the process. Gamification tools are readily available and easy to set up, thanks in part to the availability of high-speed internet and a variety of collaboration tools that allow employees to participate across all office locations.

Establish a direct connection between management and employees.

A direct line between management and employees builds trust and promotes a collaborative environment that enables growth. It is ideal that such lines are easily accessible to anyone anytime to assure employees that the management is readily available to address their concerns or ideas to foster growth—both for the employee and for the business.

Fortunately, it is no longer difficult for retailers to set up such lines even for multiple locations, thanks to modern telephony solutions such as Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP), Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Trunk, and Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP-PBX) systems. These voice solutions offer great scalability to support the current set-up of the business as well as future growth and expansion, without requiring huge costs and technical know-how to maintain. Depending on the needs of the business, organizations can avail and set up an IP-PBX system on their premises or have a trusted service provider manage their IP-PBX system for them, giving them its benefits without entailing capital expenditure.

Encourage collaborative technologies.

Employee engagement is built on collaboration between management and employees: from sharing random ideas to executing campaigns that will attract customers. It does not only strengthen workplace relationships and employee retention and satisfaction, but it also fosters a dynamic environment that encourages the creativity and innovation needed to succeed regardless of industry.

Thus, it is important for businesses to set up an environment that fosters teamwork. One way to achieve this is to make the physical office environment conducive to collaboration. As an example, here at Globe, our physical offices have open cubicles; bosses and heads have no separate rooms. This kind of setup encourages open communication with everyone in the business, allows everyone to speak their mind, and makes collaboration easier within teams or with other departments, regardless of rank.

Beyond the physical office, collaboration must also extend to the virtual environment for greater engagement. Using cloud-based technologies like G Suite and Google Hangouts, businesses can now collaborate in real time to get things done quickly and provide more efficient communication across the organization. With such wealth of resources and innovations readily available, there is no reason for businesses not to create a holistic working environment by engaging employees.

Engage beyond work.

Something many businesses tend to forget is an encompassing employee engagement program that goes beyond work-related activities. It lets employees know that there is more to life than just work, that their total well-being is considered, and that it is important for them to have fun while in the company.

One way to engage employees beyond work is to encourage the set-up of interest clubs, so employees with common interests can bond together, share experiences, and improve their skills in the process. In addition, management can set up special days where everyone can bond with one another through fun activities such as after-work karaoke and movie nights that some companies like Globe offers to its employees.

With a variety of solutions available today, businesses can tap any of these innovations and technologies to provide effective employee engagement that will benefit their bottom line and drive business growth.

Interested to learn more about our products and solutions? Arrange a consultation with a Globe Business Advisor today.