10 Feb 2016

3 ways to engage employees in the 21st century

Employee engagement isn’t a new concept. In fact, it can be traced back to the 1800s when industrial engineer Frederick Taylor studied the impact employees’ attitudes had on their productivity.

In the 1980s, employee engagement surveys rose to the forefront, with companies checking employees’ engagement levels annually or every six months.

sci fi

But in recent years, many companies have taken employee engagement to the next level – making use of some distinctly sci-fi-esque tech in their efforts to tap into how their employees are feeling and help boost engagement levels.

We’ve taken a closer look at three next-generation employee engagement tools.

1 Instant feedback

Appreciated workers equal happy, engaged workers. But over-stressed managers don’t always have time to give staff the pats on the back they deserve.

However, a new free platform, Braavoo, aims to tackle this issue by letting employers send workers feedback directly, whenever and wherever, with just a few easy clicks. Employees can also give peer-to-peer praise and all messages appear on the company timeline so everyone can see who deserves a shout out.

2 Social sharing

If some companies put as much effort into engaging with their staff as they do their customers then they might see morale levels and retention rates improving.

AdvocateHub's primary use is as advocate marketing software for B2B companies, however, a growing number of firms are using it to build advocate communities within their own organisations and share information about internal initiatives.

3 Smiley calendars

NikoNiko calendars have been used for years to measure moods and now there’s an app which goes by the same name (which is an ideophone for smile in Japanese) specifically aimed at monitoring employees’ moods.

The app allows workers to answer questions such as “How supportive was your manager today” by choosing a smiley, sad or neutral face. This data is then fed back to HR and management teams and used to track morale levels across the workforce and instigate any changes needed to boost engagement levels.

So will businesses use them?

There’s no denying that some of these methods of monitoring employee engagement are likely to be effective. After all, the more information employers have about how their workers are feeling the better. However, there’s also the argument that some are simply too intrusive.

What do you think of the next generation of employee engagement tools?

This article was provided by Unum.