Employee engagement is the key to a successful business, and your IT strategy is the foundation to building engaged employees.
Employee engagement can lead to happier employees, greater employee satisfaction, lower absenteeism, higher retention, greater employee loyalty, increased productivity and many other benefits that positively impact your business.
According to Gallup, engaged employees are “those who are involved in, enthusiastic about and committed to their work and workplace.” In fact, according to a 2018 Gallup poll, higher engagement rates are correlated with higher productivity, better retention, fewer accidents and 21 percent higher profitability.
Yet employee engagement doesn’t come easy. A study from Psychometrics Canada found that 69 percent of HR professionals recognized that employee engagement is a problem within their company, with 82 percent commenting that it is “very important” that their organization addresses employee engagement.
That’s why employers are turning to technologies in a bid to implement new, smarter and more strategic ways to boost employee engagement. Before we get into that, let’s first take a look at what employee engagement actually means.
What is employee engagement?
Many organizations often believe that employee engagement and happiness has the same meaning. While engagement and happiness in the workplace is closely related, happy employees aren’t necessarily engaged.
An engaged employee is someone who is emotionally invested in your organization. They aren’t just turning up to work to collect their paycheque, they genuinely believe in your company mission and are turning up to ensure the business succeeds.
Engaged employees care about the work they do, because they are emotionally committed to your organization and its goals. They want to make their mark in the company through high-quality work that helps the business achieve its objectives.
How you can drive employee engagement through technology
With that in mind, how exactly can technology be used to improve employee engagement? In this blog, OT Group has listed five of the top ways your Ontario-based business can use technology to improve the engagement of your team:
#1 - Online communication tools to encourage collaborative work environments
Businesses today are increasingly adopting a work-from-anywhere approach. That means their workforce will split their time between working from a physical office and working from home. To ensure employees are engaged no matter where they are working from, businesses’ must make sure that they can freely communicate with each other. Collaborative tools such as video conferencing, instant messaging and file sharing allow employees to communicate with each other, share ideas, and transfer files seamlessly between each other no matter where they are.
#2 - Employee training and education
Training and education is a crucial component of growth for business. It ensures your employees are highly talented in what they do, and enables you to stay competitive in your industry. It’s also a highly important aspect of employee engagement, as engaged workers are always looking to move up the career ladder and learn new skills. Today’s tech - whether it be e-learning tools, virtual classrooms or webinars - has made it easier for companies to implement training and education programs.
#3 - Social engagement initiatives
For remote employees, working from home each day can lead to feelings of loneliness and isolation from the rest of their peers. This in turn can lead to challenges around health and wellbeing. Thankfully, technology is here to help. Through virtual communication tools, many organizations are learning that they can improve the wellbeing and engagement of their remote employees by hosting virtual events such as virtual happy hour, personal development speakers and other team building initiatives.
#4 - Make work fun through gamification
The use of gamification in the workplace can make every-day tasks more compelling and exciting for your employees. People have a natural desire to compete, so introducing fun gamification technologies will increase engagement among your team. Colleagues will begin to discuss their work with each other, and those who do their job well will receive recognition for their good performance. Gamification helps you to build a workplace community that’s constantly striving to achieve better results.
#5 - Encourage employee feedback
The only way to truly measure and identify engagement issues that empower you to improve employee engagement in the future is by listening to what your team has to say, Your organization can encourage employee feedback through a variety of technologies, such as employee surveys and virtual suggestion boxes.
Improving employee engagement is no easy feat, but the use of technology can certainly make it easier. If you’re looking at ways you can better engage your employees through technology, contact OT Group today. We implement technology solutions for Ontario-based businesses, ensuring they have a competitive edge in today’s increasingly challenging business environment.
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