How to Engage Your Employees in the New Year

How to Engage Your Employees in the New Year

Alas, it’s the New Year. Forget that “New Year, New Me” nonsense. Instead be on the lookout for ways on how to engage your employees in new and exciting ways.

Because believe it or not, there’s lots of ways to effectively engage and re-energise your employees. All the while, not being too cliché or breaking the bank. 2017 is a brand new year, so you should make engaging your employees one of your resolutions.

Before you start the process of re-engaging, let’s look at some statistics. Employees that recognise that their employees care about them are 18% more likely to make the extra effort in the workplace. Additionally, 28% are more likely to recommend their workplace and 17% are more likely to be working for the same employer in 12 months’ time.

So it’s clear to see that when a company cares about an employees’ wellbeing, the organisation can reap more benefits. Whether that be through improved performance, company culture, energy, engagement or all of the above.

When deciding the best way on how to engage your employees’, look for ways that’ll motivate, energise and add value to them and the company. The old saying goes, “it’s the thought that counts” and in many respects, its right. Your engagement solutions don’t have to be costly, but if they are, then they should be effective. So to combat this, make sure you know and understand your staff before taking the plunge!

Here it is, eight great ways on how to engage your employees in 2017.

Enter the year with a bang!

As we know, the New Year falls at both the fun and stressful time of the year. So being festive at work can allow people to relax and act as a reward for the passing year’s hard work. As you’re going into the New Year, celebrate and then follow that energy with any other festivities that occur throughout the year.

The great thing about being festive in the workplace is that it can act as a way to break up the day-to-day office activities in an engaging way. When doing this, it also allows for team building opportunities and ways for management to interact with employees in a more natural way. Celebrate all of the holidays and birthdays in the office, showing that you care.

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Photo: Startup Stock Photos, Unsplash

Photo: Startup Stock Photos, Unsplash

Embrace your teams best and most positive qualities

As far as ways on how to engage your employees, embracing their best attributes appears to be fairly obvious. Whatever each individual person’s qualities may be, embracing them will not only make them feel good, it’ll also build trust and confidence in their abilities. This will then turn into increased engagement as they feel appreciated at work.

Organise team outings

Potentially costing you a little bit of money, team outings are effective. When trying to build engagement in the New Year, a small outing can work wonders. Not only improving engagement, team outings have the ability to re-energise employees, improve morale and work as a team building opportunity. There’re lots of options too. From indoor rock-climbing to a gallery trip. Or from a café or to a distillery for tastings. There’s lots for you and your team to do.

Empower your team

While working, nobody likes to feel like they’ve constantly got their boss breathing down their back. So empowering your team by allowing them to work autonomously is a great option. Allowing them to work freely, openly and by themselves can build office culture and engagement. Let them problem solve for themselves and not constantly needing the supervisors’ approval to do so.

Encourage employee education

As a manager, you likely don’t like the idea of your employees one day moving onto other companies. You may think what the point is investing into them when they’re going to leave. This is the wrong attitude.

Because educating and upskilling your employees is proven to have lasting effects. Contributing to a great office culture, provides the individual with more workplace independence and increasing engagement. When enrolling staff members into courses, you might think that it’s costly to you and the business. Yet, you’re giving your team much more than just skills. You’re showing that you care about their development and showing you value them. Invest like this and watch as the culture improves and the office being more engaged and energised.

Celebrate successes

Often leaders, when given success, do not share it with their team. Their team that arguably has done much of the work behind a project. A pretty straight forward idea, celebrate all successes with the team that helped you. If you win an award, celebrate with the team. But also celebrate individual achievements. Not only does this recognise a job well done, it shows the employee they’re appreciated and can improve engagement.

Photo: Kaboompics // Karolina, Unsplash

Photo: Kaboompics // Karolina, Unsplash

Be consistent

Like most other things in life, consistency is key. Support and assistance is no different, so always support your employees and have their backs. Many employees now a days feel they need more from their employer than just the weekly pay slip. They want to feel valued, supported and as if they’re making a difference. By making this a priority, your employees will trust you and really get on board of the companies goals.

Since no sane person wants to work for someone who doesn’t have their back and is inconsistent in their working approach. To persist in this behavior would be a great way to lose great employees. Show you care and reap rewards of engaged and motivated employees.

In Summary

Engaging your employees can be simple. However, it can at times cost you. But rest assured that if you do it right, it can reap rewards for both the individual and the organisation.

So in the New Year, when thinking of some great new resolutions, think as to how to engage your employees in a better way. Last year may have been great for engaging your staff, or it could have been not as it should be. Regardless, this coming year, make a conscious effort to engage your employees. Whether that be by taking them for team building activities or investing in them by other means. Show the team you care and ensure your office has a renewed energy for the coming year.