The importance of employee engagement can’t be emphasized enough. When you have engaged employees, you experience higher productivity, boosted morale, low turnover, and happier customers.
More than that, Forbes reports that positive employee engagement leads to:
- 21% greater profitability
- 41% reduction in absenteeism
- 59% less turnover
- Employees who feel like they’re really heard are 4.6 times more likely to feel empowered.
Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash
However, we have to weigh all of these positives with a few negatives:
- 90% of managers understand how important employee engagement is
- 50% of managers know how to address this
- 13% of employees consider themselves “highly engaged”
- 61% of employees feel burned out on the job
- Disengaged employees cost companies in the United States up to $550 billion a year.
You’re probably thinking, with statistics like this, how can you ever maintain employee engagement at your company? Seeing as how this is the 21st century, the answer is digital focused of course – an employee engagement app. Connecteam is a perfect employee engagement app for small businesses, desk-less and remote employees, and Enterprise companies.
An employee engagement app allows you to manage engagement in the palm of your hand. In real time, you can change the narrative and be exactly where your employees are through a no-code mobile app. Now, there are some key features the app must include in order for your methods to be effective, we list the seven must-haves in your employee engagement app below.
7 Must-Haves for Your Employee Engagement App
1. Interface can be customized.
Branding is a must and that logic applies to your employee engagement app. Why? Because whenever you’re sharing something to boost engagement, branding makes it easy to bring your team together and helps them feel like they’re a genuine part of your company culture.
Most engagement apps allow you to customize almost every feature – from the color to the logo and so on. Branding your employee engagement app creates a team-oriented environment (the same way a company uniform does) which energizes everyone to work towards achieving the goals of the company.
2. Easy access to updates (news, announcements, etc.)
In today’s fast paced society, things change in the blink of an eye, therefore communication is key. An employee engagement app is the perfect tool to deliver updates, as it’s possible in the click of a button, all news, policy changes, hirings and firings, promotions, and so on need to be distributed to your employees.
Most apps allow you to add video, photos, GIFs and more to boost interaction and interest. Additionally, it should be easy for employees to like and comment on the updates you send as this helps promote internal engagement among staff. Whatever you need to share is possible in the tap of a button.
3. Private and group chat.
With the ease of instant messaging, the same is possible on your employee engagement app because sometimes face-to-face communication just isn’t possible. Sending a private or group chat is more personal, doesn’t get lost in the email chain and doesn’t waste time like phone calls do.
The ability to instantly send a message turns your app into a one-stop shop for communication. It becomes that much easier for employees to ask each other questions, whether it’s about a project collaboration or the best route to work since the main road is closed. Employees can congratulate one another on birthdays, anniversaries, employee of the month winners, milestones achieved and more. If employees are scattered around the globe, they can chat via video and are just plugged at all times so everyone is always on the same page.
Photo by Yura Fresh on Unsplash
4. Feedback!
Are you only asking for feedback during an annual review? Then chances are, you’re missing out on some serious engagement with your employees. Involve your employees more – ask them for their opinion about what color to repaint the office, which new product name they like best, what’s their job satisfaction, what were their feelings on the latest company outing and so on. No one said feedback only had to be about job performance.
When you involve your employees on company decisions, and no they don’t need to be groundbreaking decision, they feel more connected to the company culture and will be far more engaged and productive. An employee engagement app keeps your hand on the pulse of what an employee is thinking and feeling – ask them about their overall happiness and about specific matters like policies or projects – use the survey feature, or suggestion box feature, to be in tune with what your employees needs and wants are.
5. Incentives.
Having incentives in the workplace is a great way to motivate your employees, promote teamwork, boost morale, and encourages better customer service. There’s a reason people sign up for rewards programs at Starbucks or Target, we all love free things. And free things in the workplace are no different.
Use the employee engagement app to offer incentives, such as:
- Gifts – coffee mug, movie tickets or Netflix subscription, etc.
- Discounts on company swag
- Company outings or trips
- Badges for completing training modules
Incentives can serve as a daily driver for your employees and just like that, the app becomes another part of the daily routine. And if that’s not enough, 89% of employees who work at companies that support well-being initiatives are far more likely to recommend their company to friends, family and the general public as a good place to work.
6. Professional skill development.
When training is done and professional skills grow because of digital training, you’re already a step ahead. This kind of interactive learning helps your employees retain more information rather than reading through a manual.
Create modules that push employees to test their knowledge (actually include a quiz or fun multiple choice options) and look into activities to boost training (like a virtual scavenger hunt). Include videos and helpful photos to build skills and training – it’s a lot cheaper, saves a ton of time and lets employees complete training at their own pace.
7. Actionable data.
As an admin, you have a clear picture of what’s happening with your employee engagement app. See who is reading your message and for those who aren’t, send a push notification. Know which surveys get the most response and which don’t. Learn what your employees are happy about and what they want more of. Everything is right there for you to digest and to take action on.
Employe engagement is a must if you want to be successful and we know that’s more of a rhetorical statement. We’ve gone through the facts and statistics, listed the best employee engagement app in the market, and have included a list of seven must-have features – it’s up to you now. Choose the right app for your employees and business, only then can you take employee engagement to the next level.
