How do you leverage technology and tools to support your employee engagement action plan?

The first and urgent thing we need in order to manage employee experience or employee engagement technologically is data. The first thing we need to do to collect this is to organize various trainings and surveys to get to know our employees and measure what kind of technological infrastructure support we need as an institution with the data we get from there.

I dont want to bring in a new tools to support, 1) PowerBI has the capability to get the right voice from engagement, it can read comments and give you pulse 2) Use HRMS to see the pulse 3) Performance reviews to check the engagement , through results

In today’s digital landscape, businesses can easily capture employee engagement data using a variety of free or low-cost tools and resources, without the need for high-end technology or complex software. Tools like Google Forms, SurveyMonkey, and Microsoft Forms allow for the creation of customized surveys and polls to gather valuable feedback. These user-friendly platforms provide meaningful insights and analytics, enabling businesses to understand their employees better and enhance their overall experience.

Leveraging technology for employee engagement involves using collaboration tools like Slack & Teams to foster communication. Implementing project management software like Asana or Trello ensures transparency and accountability. Utilize survey platforms such as SurveyMonkey to gather feedback and gauge employee sentiment. Incorporate gamification through platforms like Kahoot! to make learning and development fun and interactive. Regular virtual town halls via Zoom or Webex keep everyone informed and connected. Lastly, employee recognition tools like Bonusly celebrate achievements, boosting morale and motivation. By integrating these technologies, you create a dynamic, responsive, and engaging workplace that aligns with modern expectations.

Today integrating AI and machine learning for predictive analytics offers insights not just on current engagement levels but also on potential future trends and problem areas. This enables proactive rather than reactive strategies. Consider platforms that facilitate two-way communication and collaboration, allowing employees to voice their opinions and feel heard by having responses and actions taken in a correlated way. Especially if the current situational understanding can be scaled and distributed (like Viva Pulse). By combining these technological approaches with a collaborative understanding of your workforce, you can tailor your engagement initiatives more effectively together. Share as much as you can in as many ways as you can.

Something I’ve experienced at my previous and current companies: you should be mindful of the natural workflow and cadence of your team. We’ve tried tools that engage our employees on different platforms, apps, or websites, and we’ve found that utilization and engagement can often be low, in spite of the program being exactly what people wanted. The reason is that it doesn’t fit their natural workflow. If your team is on Slack all day, leverage Slack’s integrations for engagement. If your team is on Discord, use Discord, etc. You want to meet the employees where the employees are.

Create. Craft conversational employee engagement surveys effortlessly. Share. Deploy surveys across different platforms to boost reach & visibility of surveys. Deduce. Gain inestimable insights from employee engagement survey data. Devise. Plan and chart a well-structured course of action for improvement.

I like to go follow these steps when choosing to something to add to our tech stack: 1. Assessing the need and the key challenge and set clear objectives 2. Assess the existing infrastructure and see if an MVP can work with what you already have. 3. Understand the budget constraints and do a cost-benefit analysis. I always like for things to be ROI positive! 4. Make a feature list in advance of must haves vs nice to haves and then do your research and map out which tool has what. Also make sure that the tool is user friendly. 5. Make sure it checks off security and compliance needs. 6. Try to get a trial period and test. Get feedback and re-evaluate with key stakeholders.

While it's true that choosing the right tools or tech is an important part of your employee engagement planning, I'd argue that there is sometimes too much emphasis on tech - and often at the expense of time spent considering the broader listening strategy / analysis and supporting action-taking. A recalibration is needed; the data capture phase using a survey tool or tech platform is just an initial diagnostic. It provides insights, but not solutions. Arguably, greater focus needs to be given to what goes before - with securing buy-in, effective comms, getting input into the programme - and after, with analysis of findings, support for managers and alignment and accountability on action plans.

Remember that how leaders behave has a fundamental impact on engagement. The right technology might actually be no technology at all if your leaders are behaving in a way that disengages people.

Highlight key milestones and deadlines prominently in your calendar. This helps in maintaining focus on critical points in your action plan and ensuring timely completion of major objectives.

Be as public with your planning as possible (you might be surprised at how much you can learn from the broader org). Integrate your plan with AI-powered analytics to dynamically adjust your calendar based on employee feedback and participation rates as well. This allows for a more responsive and personalized engagement strategy. Employ social and internal communication platforms to remind and encourage participation in upcoming events ('did you know' matters often more than 'how do I'). By combining the right technological solutions with a collaborative strategy, you ensure your engagement activities are well-organized, visible, and adaptable to employee needs and preferences, leading to higher participation and satisfaction.

To ensure your team feels involved, valued, and motivated in using your technology and tools effectively do the following: 1. Communicate the vision and goals 2. Highlight the individual benefits 3. Provide hands on training and create resources. Consider establish support channels! 4. Foster a culture of feedback and improvement (and then act and iterate on it) 5. Celebrate and reward engagement by providing incentives and celebrating milestones

Using a suitable tech platform is a great way to create transparency and accountability with actions intended to boost employee engagement. Rather than having a manager create an action plan in a silo, making this a collaborative process, involving them team in the creation and recording this central on a survey tool/platform makes it easy to track, measure and record progress over time and crucially, to keep this as a rolling agenda item that's on peoples' agendas.

Identify the key performance indicators (KPIs) and measures of success for each action and task. This allows you to track progress and evaluate the effectiveness of your plan. Regularly review your calendar to assess progress and make adjustments as needed. This iterative approach helps you stay agile and responsive to changing needs and priorities.

As always use AI-driven analytics to interpret this feedback, identifying patterns and areas for improvement and work with capable partners who can give you insights on the technology landscape and new opportunities available. The important thing is to continually consider emerging technologies, especially ones that allow you to more naturally integrate into the places employees already work like Microsoft Teams. Regularly updating your tech stack based on evolving employee needs and preferences ensures that your engagement strategies remain relevant and effective. This dynamic approach to technology adaptation fosters a culture of innovation and responsiveness, crucial for maintaining high levels of employee engagement