Tips to Improve Employee Engagement

If you’re like most business owners, you want your employees to be engaged and enthusiastic about their work. Trends show that businesses with engaged employees have increased production, more connection to the company, and higher retention rates. What are some tips on improving employee engagement? Keep reading to find out!

Start each employee with a complete onboarding and welcome experience with follow-up training opportunities.

With an effective onboarding program, your company culture is integrated from the first day of employment. To increase employee desire to stay with your company long-term, develop follow-up training and career growth opportunities. For example, the Coastal Training Department is committed to taking our employee experiences to the next level by actively creating career growth modules that will help employees find their passions and excel in the job roles.

Establish open and honest communication with your team.

Open communication is one of the most effective ways to engage, connect, and foster a feeling of belonging. Set clear expectations. When employees don’t know what is expected of them and have clear goals to work towards, they can quickly become disengaged.

Incorporate your company values in the programs you develop.

For example, at Coastal, one of our core values is being immersed in our community, and we want our employees to feel the same way. Recently, Coastal implemented an Employee Volunteer Program. Read more about that on our blog: Considering an Employee Volunteer Program? Additionally, the Bank’s Champions Club, a company-wide recognition program, encourages employees to nominate team members for going above and beyond in representing Coastal’s core values.

Celebrate your team!

Recognizing the accomplishments and improvements your employees are making is a great way to make them feel proud and feel like they are an essential part of the team. Coastal allows its management team to recognize staff in whatever way they think is most effective. Some managers offer gift cards, others take their team members to lunch. One manager takes their team camping!

Have fun creating and implementing employee engagement programs.

Hosting contests or games, implementing challenges, or inviting a leadership motivational speaker to present can bring inspiration. The more fun you have planning programs, the more fun employees will have. For example, Coastal recently launched an in-person Connections Event Series that includes ax throwing, putt-putt golf, bocce ball, bowling, and camaraderie.

Employee engagement is key to the success of any organization. By understanding what engages employees at your business and creating an environment where they can be productive, you are well on your way to a successful business. What have you done in your organization to engage your employees?