Bad news for companies battling workplace burnout, high turnover, and plummeting productivity. According to this employee engagement report from Gallup, just 34% of employees qualified as "engaged."
The good news, though, is you can do something about it! Motivate the other 66% (and watch your productivity levels rise) with the help of this practical employee engagement guide.
Below, we'll cover everything you need to know about employee engagement and best practices:
Employee engagement feels like an HR buzzword, something that's lost any sense of meaning while we're all "circling back" and "taking things offline."
But unlike some of these more egregious examples, employee engagement still has meaning — and the definition is pretty simple. Employee engagement is a measure of how committed an employee is to helping their organization achieve its goals.
More than just hours clocked in, employee engagement is about the emotional connection an employee has (or, in so many cases, doesn't have). A highly engaged employee feels invested in their work, connected to their colleagues, and motivated to contribute.
One highly engaged employee can significantly affect the success of a department or project. But when you have a whole squad of engaged team members, you have the winning formula! Research consistently shows the bottom-line organizational benefits of employee engagement.
Taken together, these statistics are challenging to ignore, right? (Not to mention — disengaged employees cost U.S. companies around $550 billion per year!)
The short answer is no.
Although "employee engagement" and "employee satisfaction" are often used interchangeably, they are not the same concepts. You might focus on the wrong thing if you aren't intentional about your workplace strategies.
For example, an employee (let's call her Emily) might be satisfied by a job with predictable working hours, a livable wage, and an office-wide open bar every Friday at 4 pm. Emily may even be satisfied enough to stay at this job for years.
Probably not.
Emily clocks in, does her job, then clocks out. She's satisfied but not engaged.
Of course, employee engagement and job satisfaction are related. Employees must be satisfied with their work to engage meaningfully. So, you could say that employee engagement hinges on job satisfaction — but not vice versa.
So, if a worker like Emily needs more than a "satisfying" work environment to feel genuinely engaged, the next question is obvious. What do they need to drive morale?
Most employees need these key drivers:
Viewed from this lens, the more you can support your employees as people — the more engaged they'll be. But let's take this a bit further. One overlooked need in many "how to engage your employee" posts is the use of technology. Consider this eye-opening question posed in a Deloitte report:
"If technology has transformed how companies interact with customers, can it do more to revolutionize their relationships with their employees?"
With this point in mind, technology, especially video, should be utilized when engaging employees and meeting their needs. Why? Video is transformational.
Numbers don't lie. Now that you have concrete facts on the importance of employee engagement and how video can increase employee productivity, purpose, and development, let's turn this information into action.
For employees to be authentically engaged, they must be aligned with your company's core values. If your organization works in a space your employees find unnecessary or objectionable, it'll be hard to get engagement out of them, no matter how hard you try.
First, make sure that your company leadership has established clear core values. Research shows that 90% of employees who work at organizations with strong values and purpose say they're more motivated, inspired, and loyal.
Next, make it a priority to communicate these values with candidates during the recruitment and hiring process.
Pro tip: Regularly share these values with your existing employees to build an emotional connection around this shared vision. This is where creating inspiring business videos can help! For example, developing a video showcasing company culture can effectively convey your vision and value prop.
Now's the time to examine your company culture. While it often springs from core values, as organizations grow, the culture can take on a life of its own—for better or worse.
To identify the root causes of disengaged employees, launch a company culture audit to understand your strengths and weaknesses. Ask employee engagement survey questions like:
Based on the findings, make adjustments wherever you see signs of a toxic workplace. This might mean shaking up your leadership team, promoting new organizational management, or fine-tuning your internal comms processes.
Pro tip: Once you've improved in this area, share the message! Spread your positive approach with powerful company culture videos for the general public, applicants, and current employees. Witnessing these values come to life through video narratives can be a powerful motivator.
For this employee engagement idea, we mean "work environment" physically and digitally.
Physically
You may not have the budget for a major office renovation. Still, even small changes can support greater comfort: new chairs, a better lunchroom, more private meeting spaces, more collaborative tools, etc.
Digitally
Pro tip: Wherever possible, reduce the pressure to constantly be "on." For example, consider substituting real-time internal comms with strategic video or allowing employees to opt out of meetings when necessary.
A person has to feel safe and secure before considering elevated ideas like goal setting, self-actualization, or, in this case, quarterly profit. For the workplace, this mostly translates to HR and cold hard compensation.
What are you offering in terms of fair wages and benefits? Is it equitable across genders and orientations? Do you provide regular raises or incentives? Adequate compensation is critical to job satisfaction, which is, in turn, crucial to engaged employees.
Pro tip: Create a video that demonstrates what you are offering regarding salary, benefits, and job incentives. Include key points to drive home the message that your organization is fair and equitable. This easy employee engagement idea will reap its weight in rewards.
Oftentimes, the warning signs of a soon-to-be-disengaged employee can be spotted immediately. Key red flags: boredom, absenteeism, lack of enthusiasm, confusion, fear of making mistakes…
Such early warning signs are frequently attributed to a "bad apple" of hire, but often, the problem is within the system. The bottom line is that poor employee onboarding leads to poor employee performance.
Ensure your workforce is set up for success by investing in the quality of your onboarding experience. This is where using video really shines.
Pro tips:
Continuing the supportive learning environment long after the initial hire period is essential. Allowing employees to grow in their expertise and passion is a shortcut to long-term engagement. A LinkedIn report found that 94% of employees would remain with a company longer if training opportunities were available.
A culture of learning comes from investing in learning and development (L&D). These experiences can be formal or informal but should also be easy to digest. Breaking up training content into smaller chunks that can be woven into other activities enhances learning and improves employee retention.
With this in mind, managers can use video to improve employee training significantly. They can create bite-sized micro-learning videos that can easily integrate into workers' weekly schedules. Consider other video learning and development strategies below.
Pro tips:
These easy video tips and employee engagement ideas will create a supportive, interactive, and lasting learning environment.
You've probably heard the old adage: "People quit managers, not companies." A Gallup study proved this true, demonstrating that 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores can be directly attributed to managers.
(While this study is older, the core dynamics are unlikely to have changed—especially as employee engagement is even lower now than when the study was conducted.)
Support employee productivity through better management by trying these ideas:
Pro tip: Use video and other multimedia tools to create conflict resolution and motivation training content. This allows managers to learn at their own pace.
Employees who don't feel heard won't be engaged, so it's critical to get employee feedback on a regular basis. Not just to collect it, either, but to actually listen and respond to it.
The simplest form of feedback would be a periodic employee engagement survey.
Other options could be face-to-face check-ins or small focus groups—just as long as your organization allows employees to express themselves freely and without fear of retribution.
Pro tip: Once you receive the surveys, use video to create thoughtful responses—especially in a remote work situation. You can use video and audio to convey appreciation to employees for their time and effort in providing feedback, answer any concerns directly, and create an open dialogue.
Internal communications are undoubtedly one driver of employee disengagement. Both too many and too few communications can create a stressful working environment for teams, especially when they are confusing, unpredictable, or consistently negative in tone.
Evaluate your current internal comms strategy and consider these questions:
The key is finding a balance of just enough information so employees feel valued and informed without getting overwhelmed. For most companies, the right course of action is to simplify and reduce, and leveraging video can help!
For example, replacing even a few hours of mandatory meetings with more convenient internal comms videos can save time, boost morale, and give staff more control over their workflow. Below are tips on improving engagement in your internal communication videos.
Pro tips:
Engaged employees feel respected and valued at work, which is why regular recognition is essential.
Consider trying these small, personal gestures:
Pro tip: Recognize the whole team! Celebrate employee achievements through an appreciation video. For example, create a highlight reel of team accomplishments over the year and distribute it on all media channels. Imagine their excitement when they click on it!
A Forbes study found that organizations that promoted collaborative work were 5x as likely to be high performing.
But the advantages do not end there! Employee collaboration and innovation also result in these benefits:
Video is an essential tool for facilitating collaboration and innovation. For example, it can enable real-time communication and partnership across different time zones. Video can also create rapport among employees, helping them share insights, ideas, and feedback.
Pro tip: Consider recording and sharing brainstorming sessions. Utilize videos and other multimedia tools to help creatively showcase best practices, success stories, and case studies. Documenting these activities captures the spirit of collaboration and engages employees.
This employment engagement idea boils down to giving workers as many choices as possible so that they feel like the captain of their ship. For example, you might allow employees to:
Choice is an important means of signaling trust in your employees and demonstrating that their preferences matter — both of which help to improve employee engagement.
Pro tip: Encourage employees to be creative when asking for a pay raise or promotion. Let them know that video is an excellent tool for showcasing their successes, talents, and what they've learned when applying for advancement.
Not every job can entail saving the world, but every workplace can create opportunities for greater meaning that engage their workforce. These might include:
Pro tip: Give employees the right video tools and software, such as creative templates, to streamline philanthropic ideas or projects. For example, your workers may want to create a powerful call-to-action video to raise money for a cause. Make sure they have what they need to accomplish these charitable goals.
When stuck in the grind of the workweek with a million tasks on your plate, it's easy to lose sight of the bigger picture. To combat these feelings of periodic employee burnout, highlight the organizational "why" for your employees.
Pro tip:
According to a report by the American Psychological Association, 89% of workers at companies that support well-being initiatives are more likely to recommend their company as a good place to work. What does this all mean for managers?
Keeping employees engaged and healthy = company success.
The great news? Video can be a manager's best asset in promoting a healthy work-life balance. Consider the strategies below to get started.
Pro tip:
This guide covers a lot of information, so start slowly. Take one or two of the most doable employee engagement ideas above and create a plan for implementing them over the next few months. You could start with an employee engagement survey of staff or brainstorm videos to streamline internal comms.
Wherever you start, the secret is just that: get started! With a little experimentation and solid video tools, you'll find an employee engagement best practice or strategy that works for your team and unlocks the productivity that can only come from people who are genuinely invested in their work.