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Along with customer engagement, employee engagement forms part of the success equation of any business. Research shows that companies with effective employee engagement practices gain profits as much as three times more than their competitors.
Despite the growing awareness of the importance of engaging employees, some businesses still face challenges in implementing their employee engagement initiatives. There are several factors that contribute to these challenges, but one of the most common is the scope and structure of the business’s organizational setup. This is especially true among businesses with branches established in different areas, where reaching out to every employee poses a logistical challenge for employee engagement initiatives.
Fortunately, technology makes it easier for businesses to address these challenges. When powered by a reliable provider, businesses are enabled to create innovative employee engagement programs that motivate employees to excel, resulting in increased revenue and growth for the business. Here are some strategies that can be set up.
Hold Live Events and Interactive Activities
Employee engagement entails regular interaction between management and employees in a meaningful way. As a way to reach out to employees and let them know what is going on in the business, management can either set up video conferencing with key employees across locations or do it on a broader scale via live streaming of company events throughout all locations. These bandwidth-intensive collaboration tools will require a network stable enough to provide the speed needed at huge capacities, so businesses need to ensure that these solutions are backed by a network with a solid connectivity infrastructure.
Businesses can also utilize gamification to enhance 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 of communication between management and employees fosters 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 business setup as well as future growth and expansion, without requiring significant costs and technical expertise 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 innovative ideas to executing campaigns that attract customers. It not only strengthens 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. For example, the physical offices at Globe Telecom feature open cubicles; bosses and heads do not have 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 a 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 vital for them to have fun while in the company.
One way to engage employees beyond the workplace is to encourage the establishment of interest clubs, allowing employees with common interests to bond together, share experiences, and enhance 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, offer to their employees.
With a variety of solutions available today, businesses can tap into 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.
Sources:
1http://ceoworld.biz/2016/09/13/retail-employee-engagement-two-innovative-solutions-disrupt-challenging-industry
2http://ceoworld.biz/2015/09/17/3-simple-ways-to-use-technology-to-build-employee-engagement
