5 Powerful Employee Engagement Strategies You Should Use in 2021

Throughout 2020, the concept of employee engagement has changed drastically, and it continues to evolve around the world. Driven by the pandemic that will continue to ripple through 2021 and the years to come, employee engagement has become a difficult challenge for business leaders across the globe. With more and more businesses embracing the remote work model, managing a thriving decentralized workforce can seem like an insurmountable task.

Sure, you can maintain efficiency through employee and project management tools, but if you’re looking to preserve the culture and keep people motivated, you have to employ additional tactics. From better onboarding to better listening, and from better communication to more effective employee development, there’s plenty you can do to keep engagement high and take your company forward in 2021.

Let’s go over the most effective strategies you can use this year to boost employee engagement ensure success on numerous fronts.

Engage new hires with better onboarding

First things first, let’s tackle one of the biggest challenges leaders face nowadays – engaging new hires. Given the fact that companies around the world are now predominantly hiring remote employees, making newcomers feel welcome can be a challenge. What’s more, transforming them into productive team members from day one can seem impossible. This is because you no longer have the traditional corporate support system you had when everyone was still working under the same roof.

Newcomers can often feel confused by their new role in the company, and they can have a tough time connecting with colleagues remotely. That’s why you need to create a better onboarding system.

Start by creating a personalized welcome pack for your new hires. This digital pack should contain everything they need to feel right at home, like a personalized welcome note from you, digital training tools and tutorials, and a nice incentive like a takeout gift card. Alternatively, you can add something fun like a shirt with a hilarious design to help lighten up the mood. Your new hires are probably nervous about starting.

Next, use the buddy system to help new hires connect with colleagues quickly. Pair a veteran employee with a newcomer to help them adjust to their new job and start contributing to the team right away. Make yourself available to new hires so that they can reach out whenever they get stuck.

Listen to your employees and adapt your leadership

Making yourself available to your employees is not just about better management, it’s about showing the collective that you are there to guide and support them through tough times. People want to see strong leadership, but they also want their leaders to be flexible and adaptive to their needs, aspirations, and professional goals.

If you want your employees to stay engaged and productive, then you have to be engaged as well and listen to their feedback. In fact, you should ask for their honest feedback and allow them to present their opinions and experiences to you. This will make them feel appreciated but will also give you invaluable information that you can use to make better decisions and drive operational efficiency.

Stay connected to manage your employees efficiently

Another key tactic you should employ in 2021 and beyond is ensure constant vertical and horizontal connectivity in your organization. In less technical terms, you need to stay in touch with your employee collective at all times through a secure employee engagement platform that enables real-time communication, monitoring, collaboration, feedback, and more. Engagement platforms are built to facilitate communication between leaders and their employees so that the latter always feels safe and secure.

Ensuring that the employees feel this way is instrumental during uncertain times, and especially when people are forced to work remotely. Continuous communication also allows you to stay on top your employees’ well-being, ensuring that they are physically healthy to work, while at the same time working on improving their mental health during trying times.

Create digital hang-outs and breakrooms

Not only are leaders supposed to communicate with employees, but it would be a wise idea to facilitate communication and socialization between teams. It might not be something that everyone inherently wants to do, but if you give them the tools to connect and spend time hanging out online, people will start gravitating towards each other naturally.

This is a wonderful opportunity to engage employees in digital hang-outs and breakrooms where they can talk about anything and everything, share memes and GIFs, exchange ideas, and just have a good laugh. Using these chat rooms throughout the day will take the pressure off work and allow them to find their focus and zeal.

3>Invest in employee development

Finally, now’s the time to invest more in employee development programs to boost engagement and productivity, but also bring more value to your company. Investing in your employees through professional development shows people how much you care about them and their position in your company, and it creates a culture of success and continuous advancement.

With many online learning tools and platforms available right now, you can easily facilitate employee upskilling and training. Get an employee certified online and they will be ready to assume new positions and responsibilities that will take your business forward.

Wrapping up

There are many ways you can engage a decentralized workforce, you just have to start thinking beyond your Monday group call. With these tips in mind, you should have no problem preserving a thriving employee collective in 2021 and the years to come.