Employee engagement, or lack thereof, is a big topic of conversation right now because of the shockingly low amount of employees who are engaged (33% in the U.S.). Several factors go into helping an employee be engaged and do their best work. As an employer, some of those factors are within your control and others are dictated by your employee, based on their interests, experiences, health and personal obligations. Still, there are many aspects that employers can control to make their workplace the best it can be. By understanding this and making adjustments, employers can then confidently say they are doing everything they can to create and keep a superior work environment. And if employees are not engaged at this point, their supervisor should raise the issue, create a plan to fix it, and if no solution is found, help everyone out by moving them along and finding someone else.
A major factor impacting employee engagement is receiving communication from all parties within your workplace. This means communication from management and executives, direct supervisors, and colleagues in all departments and locations. Having such widespread communication used to be difficult. You had to schedule in-person meetings, arrange conference calls, send massive email chains, or attend town hall meetings. Now, using a collaboration tool that fits the particular needs of your company allows connection for colleagues around the globe, and at any time.
Informing employees about company happenings and changes is a simple way for management to show that they value their employees. Sharing information is easy when you can update colleagues in real-time, and those updates are available on the go. One caveat is that in this high connectivity age we live in, many people do not want to have to access to these updates every day, at all hours. To help with this need, notifications can be turned off or set to only come through at certain hours when marked urgent so that employees do not feel they have to work or be connected 24/7, like in the middle of the night or when on vacation.
Benefits to using collaboration tools to stay informed include:
Give and receive immediate, timely information.
This could be as simple as a quick post about employee birthdays this month, or scheduled company holidays. Employees can reference this information throughout the year. Management can also share goals or objectives at the start of the new year, or give more information about initiatives the company is implementing. This is especially useful for your human resource department because it needs to share company-wide updates often and can help onboard new employees more quickly by sharing a wealth of information that is at their fingertips.
Find out what’s happening in other areas of the company.
Separate departments within the same company often work in silos, even with the best intentions. While implementing the correct collaboration tool is not going to solve this problem alone, it is a major component to getting the process started. After choosing the right tool, all employees and management must be trained on how to use the tool to get the most out of each of the features. This helps everyone get an understanding of the functionality and how this tool can really change the way they work to be more open and efficient, including sharing what they are working on openly with other colleagues and departments.
Each company is different in the capabilities and features that they need from a tool, so analyzing the employee journey is important to finding the best resource for your employees. Communicating quickly and often ensures that employees feel valued in the workplace, and thus encourages that they give their best work in return for the success of the company.
Keeping your entire team informed and being transparent helps improve engagement at your company. Implementing the appropriate collaboration tool helps save time, improve your work environment, and connect with colleagues anywhere, anytime.
