Five Great Ways to Improve Employee Engagement with Technology

Almost half of the workforce is disengaged, here’s how today’s tech can help with employee engagement.
Five Great Ways to Improve Employee Engagement with Technology
By
Aimee Laurence

There is a lot of value to having engaged employees. Employees who are engaged are proven to be more productive and perform better than employees who aren’t engaged. However, even though these studies are firm on that information, almost half of the workforce is disengaged. If your company is seeking ways to engage its employees, there’s a lot of different ways to do it. Certain tech initiatives and ideas can successfully boost the engagement levels at your company.

Look for a Collaboration Tool

Collaboration is a popular concept these days in businesses, and it’s critical to understand it. A company can’t truly be successful without effective collaboration. When ideas come about through the work of a few people, they tend to be a lot more appealing to clients than ideas that are exclusively developed by one or two people.

Collaboration on its own doesn’t always mean that there will be more engagement. Not every employee is at their best in a teamwork environment. With technology, though, everyone can collaborate in a comfortable and familiar environment. This is especially useful when you’re onboarding new employees and want them to feel comfortable and not overwhelmed with a new team.

With technology everyone can collaborate in a comfortable and familiar environment.

Joanne Marlin, a tech writer at BoomEssays and Essay Services, explains that “Slack is a great example of a collaboration tool that lets employees follow global channels and specific channels for projects. Regardless of the tool your company chooses, it’s a worthy investment to get a collaboration tool for projects.”

Add Technology to Meetings

Meetings that are mandatory for the whole company are usually not much fun for the majority of employees even if they’re important for senior management. By adding technology to all-hands meetings, it’s much easier to create an engaged workforce. Take your presentation to the next level by making it accessible, fun, and engaging by using GIFs, memes, and videos which will capture your employees’ attention.

You can also have a live stream going of the meeting for all remote employees, or use tools like Sli.do to add real-time polling. This works really well with Google Slides and can be moderated by an admin on another device.

Gamification Is Key

Gamification used to be a big topic in the business world a few years ago, but it’s still relevant today. Since companies have implemented it, they have all seen a boost in productivity and engagement.

It’s a mix of psychology and technology in gaming that motivates the employees (the players) through concepts like leaderboards, badges, levels, challenges, and rewards.

These ideas and the right tech tools can be implemented in many parts of your business. If you have a development team, why not host a hackathon, an engaging and gamification experience that will give your team the right hands-on experiences. For sales, you can set up some friendly competition and engagement.

Set Up a Bring-Your-Own-Device Policy

The key to employee engagement is morale and happiness. One easy way to address this is by getting rid of their old company phones and laptops and set up a bring your own device policy. Paul Weis, an HR manager at UKWritings and Academized, says that “it means that employees can have a more pleasant experience and use the tools they enjoy. They will put more time and work into the project since they feel better doing it.”

Set Up an Employee Recognition Tool

You can improve your business and boost engagement at the same time by recognising and rewarding employee achievements. Recognition is a key way to boost employee morale, productivity, and in the long-term higher retention rates due to greater company loyalty.

Employee recognition tools can include features of gamification, sending personalised notes and Hi5's, so that employee recognition comes from the top, as well as from colleagues, in a public and/or private format.

There are so many technology tools around us, and we can leverage them in the office to boost engagement. Find the right tools for your company and you’ll figure out what works best for you.

About the author

Aimee Laurence, a career editor for Big Assignments and University Assignments, Laurance is passionate about employee engagement and work-life balance. She loves to find new ways that companies can boost productivity and engagement at work. Aimee is also a tutor for Biology Writing Service UK.

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