Effective Employee Communication and Engagement Tips to Bring Your Desk and Frontline Workers Together
Businesses of all shapes and sizes have been working on employee engagement strategies for years. Today’s labor market is more competitive than ever; it’s critical to maintain a happy and productive workforce. Employee engagement strategies are a great way to keep everyone on the same page and working together to achieve your business goals.
When you effectively communicate with your employees, they will not only understand the direction of your company, but also will be more engaged and motivated to achieve the company’s goals. It will also bring all the desk and frontline workers together and make the work culture vibrant, growing, and thriving.
Moreover, a Gallup report says that employees’ productivity increases by 18% when employees are engaged, while employee absenteeism decreases by 81%. Another Gallup report claimed that businesses with engaged employees see 23% higher profits than those with unengaged ones.
Below are effective employee communication and engagement tips that you can implement in your own business.
How to Bring Desk and Frontline Workers Together?
Words are powerful tools to break or make any team or organization. Effective employee communication and engagement can utilize this tool to achieve success. Here are some tips that bring desk workers and frontline workers together:
Employee Communication Tools
Internal communication tools give coworkers opportunities to connect. There are various channels to create effective employee communication, such as team chat platforms, video conferencing, and emails.
An internal communication platform creates an environment for people to share ideas, work-related tasks, and projects. Also, it helps people working in remote work arrangements feel as if they are a part of the company.
Open Work Culture
You may have the right communication tools, but you may still deal with a lack of communication. It might be that your overall work culture is holding people back from interacting and engaging. Successful organizations endeavor to create a work environment where individuals are not afraid to speak up when something goes wrong, suggest ideas, or be honest about work.
This openness improves employee engagement and helps companies grow while retaining talent. But how do you bring this openness? By encouraging feedback and being receptive to it. Also, motivate your employees to speak even if it is a bad idea and encourage them to ask questions without fearing they sound foolish.
Constructive Feedback
Giving constructive feedback is one of the best methods to improve employee engagement. Feedback helps the suggestions reach directly to managers. It also gives you a repository of quantitative data from your team.
You can formalize the feedback process and yet make it engaging at the same time by working with PeopleOne, a Modern Intranet solution developed by Eleviant Tech. It combines all the elements of a digital workplace to empower employees by helping them connect and communicate.
However, informal feedback can also help. It gives a message to the employees that the company is interested in their opinions. For instance, you could ask how they feel about new project ideas while in a meeting or call. Chances are, you will get some points of view you could not think of on your own. Also, tell the employees what you have learned from them and let them know that they are heard.
Celebrate Achievements
Just like employee feedback helps management, management must also give feedback to the employees. It will help them learn and grow. Celebrate their milestones and achievements across the company to keep them motivated.
This celebration will also connect all the frontline workers and desk workers while boosting employee morale.
Connect Departments and Tasks
All employees are working towards a shared goal just make sure they do not work in silos. The quicker way to achieve the goal is to get everyone to work together. It is best to divide all the tasks related to any project into teams of different departments. They will connect while working—nothing can connect people like shared pain. But jokes aside, you can also organize quarterly meetings and the occasional lunches. Encourage your teams to highlight what they are working on. This could set off interdepartmental communication like nothing else.
Plan Activities
You can connect all desk workers with frontline workers by organizing various activities. This will boost their relationship and improve their job satisfaction and help in team building. Some activities that you can consider are:
- Training programs
- Lunches and learns
- Achievements and awards functions
- Health and wellness programs
- Outdoor sports
- Social events such as volunteer programs
- Holiday parties and trips
- Farewell parties for exiting employees
Employee Engagement Experiences
Though there is no one-size-fits-all strategy for engagement of all the employees, you can focus on certain tactics suitable for all employees to help your organization, like:
- Engaging onboarding experience: It will introduce employees to all teams and help connect with like-minded people.
- Strength assessments: It can be a bonding activity where everyone can understand the strengths and weaknesses of each other and collaborate better.
- Make space for socializing: Such as a lunchroom, cafeteria, or fun zone outfitted with a ping pong table, where employees can take a quick break and recharge while connecting.
- Think differently: Show them the company genuinely cares for them. To improve employee engagement, any company can start a newsletter, learning clubs, or ditch cubicles. You can also consider creating a comfortable workspace, hiring a mentor for them, incentivizing job tasks, allowing them to set individual goals, and organizing a monthly question and answer session.
Conclusion
Effective employee communication is key to employee retention. It improves performance quality and helps them to collaborate with their peers. Employee engagement activities boost participation, strengthen their relationship with the company, and job satisfaction. Follow the tips mentioned earlier to create a positive work culture, improve retention rate, and foster a path to organizational success.
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