Employee Engagement Activities to Reinvent Your Workforce

Being a Business Consultant I came across many problems of the companies. Many entrepreneurs have the same issue, i.e., Employees are not motivated, attrition ratio is high. Cannot plan future things because we are not sure whether the employee will be available or not after 2 years.

Keeping employees engaged is perhaps the biggest challenges that all companies facing. Entrepreneurs always thinking about how to grab the opportunity to gain long-term commitment from the employees. What I observed during my consultancy experience is that all MNC's are working on employee engagement activities wherein many SME's are not aware of the same.

Employee engagement activities should be more about the emotion than the intellect. Managers are busy, employees are disengaged that is the situation which all companies are facing. This is precisely where employee engagement activities come into play.

The word “activities” indicate a call to action, as something to do. Activities are a great way to engage and involve people and to show your employees that you care.

In this article, we will see some employee engagement activities to boost morale and increase job satisfaction.

Some Employee Engagement Activities:

Involve employees in your business planning process:  In SME’s, it has been observed that many companies are making their strategy sheet for the next 1, 2 or 3 years. Involve your team in planning, assessing opportunities and coming up with improvement ideas for your business strategy. In this case, also make sure that if you have the multiple offices then not only involve employees from HO but also involve from other branches also.  By doing this, you’ll foster loyalty and you’ll also have a prepared leadership pipeline.

Encourage and provide learning opportunities: Knowledge is the power of the 21^st century. So, create your own academy, where employees can access the knowledge and development and grab the opportunities that they need. This is one of the reasons why employees quit companies: lack of learning opportunities.

Sports competitions: Introduce sports competitions such as inter-department cricket matches, football games, etc., This is an exceptional team building exercise as well as a good form of physical and mental exercise.

Regular Potlucks create a positive vibe:

“With food, we can share and communicate our emotions. It’s that mindset of sharing that is really what you’re eating.”– Jeong Kwan

A potluck is basically a food-party where each guest contributes a different homemade dish of food to share. At its base part, it is bonding over food.

Hold a birthday breakfast with the CEO: Face time with executive leadership is highly prized by front-line workers, but difficult to come by without a plan. One idea is to have held a monthly or Quarterly breakfast/lunch with the CEO and everyone who has a birthday that month.

Peer-to-peer Recognition works wonders:

Peer to peer employee recognition is 35.7% more likely to have a positive impression on financial results than manager-only recognition.- Source (SHRM/Glob force Employee Recognition Survey)

Try to remember the last time when someone told you what a great the job you have done?

All in all, having a peer-to-peer appreciation is an outstanding way to build an environment of gratitude and appreciation, where colleagues thank each other for their accomplishments.

Apart from these there are many activities which we can do for the engagement of the employees like:

·         The Employee of the month” on a regular basis

·         Build a great mentorship program

·         Office Trips are great for team building

·         Silly Trophies are fun and engaging

·         Create your own internal magazine

·         Celebrate your own organization’s day

·         Implement work-life balance and there are many activities….

We know that engaging your employees may seem like an enormous task that can never be accomplished.

But try to incorporate employee engagement activities in your organization and we are sure that you will have a more productive, engaged and the happier workforce at hand.

Parable of a Blacksmith and his son

A young man went to seek an important position at a large printing company. He passed the initial interview and was going to meet the director for the final interview. The director saw his resume, it was excellent. And asked,'

"Have you received a scholarship for school?"
The boy replied, "No".
'It was your father who paid for your studies?
''Yes.' He replied.
'Where does your father work? '
'My father is a Blacksmith'

The Director asked the young man to show him his hands.
The young man showed a pair of hands soft and perfect.
'Have you ever helped your parents at their job? '
'Never, my parents always wanted me to study and read more books. Besides, he can do the job better than me.

The director said:
'I have got a request: When you go home today, go and wash the hands of your father and then come see me tomorrow morning.'

The young man felt his chance to get the job was high.

When he returned to his house he asked his father if he would allow him to wash his hands.

His father felt strange, happy, but with mixed feelings and showed his hands to his son. The young man washed his hands, little by little. It was the first time that he noticed his father's hands were wrinkled and they had so many scars. Some bruises were so painful that his skin shuddered when he touched them.

This was the first time that the young man recognized what it meant for this pair of hands to work every day to be able to pay for his studies. The bruises on the hands were the price that his father payed for his education, his school activities and his future.

After cleaning his father's hands the young man stood in silence and began to tidy and clean up the workshop. That night, father and son talked for a long time.

The next morning, the young man went to the office of the director.
The Director noticed the tears in the eyes of the young man when He asked him,

'Can you tell me what you did and what you learned yesterday at your house?'
The boy replied: 'I washed my father's hands and when I finished I stayed and cleaned his workshop.'

'Now I know what it is to appreciate and recognize. Specially in the family. Not to take anyone for granted"

The director said, "This is what I look for in my people. I want to hire someone who can appreciate the help of others, a person who knows the hardship others go through to accomplish things, and a person who realizes that  money is not his only goal in life".

'You are hired'.

Break Da Cage - make sure your children learn to acknowledge and appreciate the hardships you go through. Only then will they adopt the same culture.
By keeping them protected and aloof of reality, they will end up being soft and egoistic.

Source:https://www.godupdates.com/parable-of-a-blacksmith-and-his-son/

The Jobs Most at Risk of Automation

No doubt you’ve heard talk of automation potentially replacing people’s tasks — or even their entire job. There’s a lot of debate surrounding this topic, especially around whose jobs could be most at risk. But a recent analysis from Brookings sheds some new light: automation is most likely to impact lower-wage occupations with lower education requirements, characterized by what some call “rote work.” In other words, there’s a higher chance that automation will replace jobs that don’t require a college degree (in fields like food service or administration), compared to jobs that do (in fields like engineering or business). The report notes, “workers without a bachelor’s degree are on average employed in jobs with task automation potential of 49%” while workers with a bachelor’s degree tend to have jobs with a task automation potential of 29%. What does this mean for jobs requiring less education? Brookings surmises that people will shift into jobs that are less prone to automation, like personal care work or building maintenance and groundskeeping. Broadly, jobs in manufacturing, logistics, and food service will see reduced employment, while jobs in health care, education, and professional services will see gains.

Source: Harvard Business Review