Now is the time to look at ways to drive employee engagement – especially as according to recent news, as the new year comes in, real pay remains £15-a-week below its peak before the global financial crash of 2008 and is not expected to recover to its pre-crisis levels until 2025. The RF said that more than half the public in the UK are expecting their pay to remain the same or fall over the next 12 months if they stay in the same job, according to recent data from the Bank of England. It is clear that if pay rises aren’t on the agenda, you need to work hard to drive employee engagement. If you want some real tips- read on! Understand employees’ personal goals “I asked employees to share their top five personal dreams/goals/ambitions in an email,” said Bob Glazer, founder and managing director of Acceleration Partners. “I selected 10 recurring themes from the goals employees shared and set out to make them come true.” Personal trainers, a trip to Denmark, and flying lessons are just a few of the customized bonuses Acceleration Partners employees will be receiving this year. “No one remembers a cash bonus from five to 10 years ago, [but] I still remember a trip I was given seven years ago for me and my wife: It was a life memory,” added Glazer. Allow work time volunteering “Many of our employees are passionate about giving back to our community, but it’s difficult to find time in their busy schedules to do so,” said Bret Bonnet, co-owner and founder of Quality Logo Products, which has 110 full-time employees. “As a way to reward them for their outstanding efforts during the work day, we’re allowing our employees to volunteer while on the clock. Groups of employees went to Feed My Starving Children and donated some of their work hours to packaging meals for children around the world. Not only was it a chance for our employees to give back, it was also an amazing team-bonding experience that brought us all closer together.” Invest in mental health “As a startup, we had the luxury of starting with a blank sheet when it came to how we would operate and one of the first areas we looked at was how to provide an environment for employees that tries to prevent mental health issues arise from work,” said Richard Stewart, founder of Untangl.co.uk. “Its allowed us to work hard to provide a culture of openness, candour and support. We’ve also never had any office hours, fixed holiday allocations or a dress code. I once worked at businesses where this was a huge area of friction for employees and it just isn’t important compared to getting employees to fully engage and become committed to the business. Caring for employees beyond a merely transactional relationship is fundamentally important and delivers a huge range of benefits from better engagement and improved retention, to lowering costs associated with absenteeism.” Encourage pets at work According to new research, one-fifth of workplaces now allow employees to bring pets into the office and 28% of Brits suggested that they’d be more likely to apply for a job if they have, or were allowed to bring in, furry friends in their working environment. Richard Watson, Regional Director, Purina comments: “We wholeheartedly believe that people and pets are better together – and being at work should not stand in the way of that. It boosts employee morale, encourages more physical activity and helps us create a stimulating environment where our people are happy, have fun and can perform at their best. Having pets in the office is inspirational. Allow flexible working 70 per cent of respondents to the powwownow survey claimed that offering a flexible working structure makes a job more attractive to them. In addition, 30 per cent of people would rather have flexible working than a pay rise – so it can be a cost-effective way to make employees feel valued at work. Move to a ‘continuous’ check in vs an annual appraisal Many articles have been written on the topic of annual appraisals and how they are becoming. Evidence has shown they are time-consuming and ineffective, and many global conglomerates have traded in annual appraisals for regular performance discussions. Despite this, the results of the survey revealed that 65% of participants are still using annual appraisals. Of the remaining participants, 24% come from companies who are in the process of moving away from annual appraisals and only 11% had a continuous model of performance management in place. What other ways have you seen real benefits in employee engagement? Join the conversation on Twitter – @IncentiveHub Post navigation Rewards in 2018 – What’s ahead? | Incentive & Motivation Making a best in class reward programme | Incentive&Motivation
