Employee engagement is low in Australia, but it doesn't have to be. Here are several simple ways to boost morale in your organisation.
Look around you. Are your employees happy? Unfortunately, for many organisations, the answer might be no. According to Gallup, Australian employee engagements sits at just 24 per cent. And it seems all too easy for companies to simply accept the low levels of engagement in this country, assuming that only businesses with huge budgets like Google can afford to invest sufficiently in workforce happiness.
However, the business impact of having an engaged workforce is clear. Gallup data shows that businesses with high employee engagement are 21 per cent more productive than their bottom-quartile counterparts. And you don't have to have a Google-sized budget to improve engagement. In fact, there are many simple things businesses can do to boost employee morale:
1) Introduce an employee rewards and recognition program
Two thirds of employees would quit if they felt unappreciated, according to Forbes. If you want to boost engagement, it's essential that your team feel their work makes a difference to their colleagues, direct managers and the company as a whole. The easiest way you can show an employee their job matters is by rewarding them for it.
Introducing an employee rewards and recognition program will enable you to directly link recognition to a certain behaviour or task, showing how much you appreciate the work your team do for you on a daily basis.
Just make sure you're offering rewards people actually want. There's nothing worse than working really hard on a job but receiving a poor reward in return. That's why at Power2Motivate, our global rewards gallery gives employees a choice between thousands of different prizes, including electronics, travel, event tickets and household appliances.
2) Get everyone involved
Managers, colleagues, directors... to really feel appreciated, employees will ideally be recognised by everyone in their company. So getting everyone to buy into your rewards program is essential. Creating a system whereby employees can nominate each other when they feel someone's done a great job on a project will promote a broader culture of recognition that will spread beyond your rewards program. This will eventually enter everyday discourse in the office.
Meanwhile, getting managers and directors involved when someone has had a particularly important achievement will show your company that those at the top care about their employees and the work they're doing.
3) Link employees' jobs to the company's mission
Central to ensuring your team believe their work matters is showing them how it links to the company's wider goals. For example, how does their job directly impact revenue or the company's brand image? Showing employees this will help them feel like they're making a difference. You can even do this within your rewards program by saying why someone has gotten a prize and how it has linked to the company's goals.
4) Offer charity days
Another way to boost morale is by offering your team the chance to make positive contributions to their communities. One of the easiest methods of doing this is by offering days or half days where your people can go out and engage in charitable activities. This will work particularly well if it's related to their jobs. For example, consider if a bank were to encourage its employees to take an afternoon off every month to teach people about saving money and financial literacy.
You can also link this to your rewards program by offering prizes to those who have performed well in whatever charitable activity they've chosen.
This will also give your company a PR boost, as well as helping to improve morale by giving your employees the chance to do something good in their communities.
Rewards and recognition with Power2Motivate
Here at Power2Motivate, we have years of experience creating rewards and recognition programs that work. From manager involvement to peer-to-peer recognition, we can ensure your whole company is getting involved with your rewards program.
For more information, reach out to the team today or request a demo.