4.5 ideas to enhance employees` engagement

Keeping people engaged has always been a priority in all recent HR strategies but it was never seen as important as today. While our perspective on work&life is changing, the HR teams' challenge to keep people happy and engaged is now more complicated.

Is there a silver bullet to keep people happy at work? Definitely not. But there are some solutions that might inspire your actions.

Let`s start with the constant question - is the extra money enough to increase engagement and performance?

Is it all about the money?

Common sense might say - more money increases the engagement and ultimately the performance. But, there is scientific evidence to show that the connection between compensation, motivation, and performance is not as direct as you would expect.

Payment is an extrinsic reward. Studies show that employees who are intrinsically motivated are three times more engaged than employees who are extrinsically motivated. This study shows that the more emotionally stable, extraverted, agreeable or conscientious people are, the more they tend to like their jobs (irrespective of their salaries). And - yet, the money might be important, but only up to one point.

What about the factory workers?

A big share of the noise these days is around the office people`s engagement changes. For them, working from anywhere is a norm already and the needs for engagement are different. But, everything changes for the factory workers. How can you keep them engaged?

Of course, it starts from paying them fairly, where fairly is subjective. But, there are strategies contained into a more-human approach and few ideas are here.

Where can you get some inspiration?

Your employees are your first customers. You could use the customer engagement frame for inspiration in the short run. There is a good set of tactics to keep your customers engaged and your marketing team could give you a lot of advice. Here are some of my favorites - here and here

Who nails it?

There are a few tactics that created a lot of buzz in the industry. Zappos`s example is maybe the most famous. Paying people to quit, as proof to confirm the new employees' belief in the company`s values is one of the tactics. And it was not unexpected. Behind it, there is an intentional plan to keep the people happy. Here are some inspirational resources about it.

On the same note, while the entire industry is struggling to keep top talent in, a small company in the US is paying them to quit in the early days. The employees get “the power to "fire the company" [and it] sent a compelling message in culture building. "It's a powerful thing for them to turn down the cash, opt-in, and commit. And it sets the stage for a great working relationship,"

What do you mean by 4.5?

?To build your employees` engagement, you need to know what are your people looking for. What is their intrinsic motivation and where is that sweet spot that keeps them happy? What should go together with a salary increase? Or - what could you change so that they get happier?

We have just seen some great success stories where Dora, the recruitment robot, helps the HR teams find out fast what the employees are looking for. Call it NPS, employees satisfaction, or stay-interviews. Gathering quantitative data will give you a good part of the information. You will still need in-depth analysis. But - when you need to collect high volumes of data - an automated conversational solution could help you save half of your effort.

Do you know other successful stories around the employees' engagement? Drop them in the comments, they will definitely inspire others in their effort.