The ultimate employee engagement guide for managers

Managers, salute; we know how hard getting your head around team engagement can be, and we’re here to make your life easier.

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In this employee engagement guide for managers, we round up

• what engagement is
• the key drivers behind engagement
• how to measure employee engagement successfully
• and actionable ways to increase engagement ASAP

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So let’s get stuck in.

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What employee engagement is (and what it’s not)

To put it as simply as possible: 

Employee engagement relates to how committed an employee is to their employer on an emotional, behavioral, and intellectual level. 

Employee engagement reflects how your employee feels about your company as a whole - from the culture to their job roles to teams and managers. The more engaged employees are, the more satisfied, motivated, and productive they are likely to be, which can only mean good things for your organization. See the full benefits of highly engaged employees here. 

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Employee engagement is different from employee satisfaction, experience, or motivation

Instead, engagement encompasses all three:

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• Satisfaction - Employees can be satisfied with their job role without being engaged. Take an employee who is being given very few tasks but is paid well. In this case, they may be satisfied with their employment but not highly engaged with their organization or work. See more on the difference between employee engagement and employee satisfaction here. 
• Experience - An employee experience refers to every interaction with an organization. It starts with reading a job description and ends with their final departure. Employee experience impacts employee engagement.
• Motivation - Employee motivation looks at how motivated your employees are to do the tasks assigned to them and their highest standards. There are several popular theories that explore the motivational drivers of teams. Employees that are highly engaged are also likely to be highly motivated.

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The impact of employee engagement

Employee engagement statistics show a direct correlation between employee engagement and a company's productivity. 

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High employee engagement leads to 18% more sales, 14% higher productivity results and 10% higher customer satisfaction. Engaged employees enjoy their work, are proud of the organization they work for, and are motivated to do their best. They’re also less likely to seek employment elsewhere, reducing employee turnover rates.

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Understanding the key drivers of engagement

With Gomada, we’ve identified four key drivers of employee engagement, each of which can be measured in our platform:

1. Relationships
2. Satisfaction
3. Wellbeing
4. Personal growth

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How to measure engagement: where it all starts

To understand employee engagement within your team, you first need to measure it. 

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There are three levels of employee engagement to look out for:

1. Actively engaged - These employees are passionate about their work, committed to their goals, and loyal to your organization. Actively engaged employees often go above and beyond, taking ownership of projects and striving to represent your company well.
2. Not engaged - These employees have low interest and involvement in their jobs, doing the bare minimum. They will follow orders but are less proactive and productive.
3. Disengaged - These employees are outliers in their teams. They are unproductive, unhappy, and even resentful. They spread negativity, cause disruption, and do not contribute new ideas.

How to begin measuring employee engagement?

The most popular ways to measure engagement are:

• Pulse surveys
• In-person meetings
• Anonymous feedback
• Exit interviews
• Employee Net Promoter Score surveys (eNPS)
• Annual in-depth surveys

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Read our quick-fire guide to employee engagement measurement here.

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Why surveys and pulse surveys are so popular

Pulse surveys are arguably the most popular type of employee engagement survey. The reasons? They’re quick and easy to set up and typically result in a high completion rate. 

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These surveys can be completed in a few minutes and sent out daily, weekly, or monthly. While they’re limited in the data you can collect, they’re a great way to check in on employee engagement and monitor changes quickly. 

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Give our blog a read if you need help with employee engagement survey questions.

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5 things great managers do to improve engagement

So you’re getting the hang of what employee engagement is? Now it’s time for tips on how to improve employee engagement as a manager:

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1. Communicate the company vision

Employees value having a sense of purpose and feeling their own beliefs and goals are aligned with the organization they work for. Great managers regularly remind employees of the company's vision and values, so they know how their work contributes to the bigger picture.

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2. Develop relationships with employees

Great managers know the importance of strong team relationships with their employees and developing a true sense of belonging for those in their workplace. They recognize that team building is one of the most crucial employee engagement activities and schedule it frequently. 

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If team building needs to be higher on your agenda, look at our guide to the best virtual team building activities.

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3. Encourage professional development

It’s important your employees feel they have opportunities to develop and grow. Great managers give plenty of feedback to help shape team development and provide frequent opportunities for training. 

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4. Give recognition and feedback

Help your employees feel valued for their work with plenty of recognition. This can be as simple as saying thank you for their work or providing tangible rewards like gift cards and company swag.

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Great managers also seek frequent feedback through 1-1 discussions or surveys. They know there’s no better way to find out how to engage team members in a project than to ask them directly what they need.

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5. Foster a positive environment

A great manager knows the work environment is crucial to a positive employee experience. They will go out of their way to ensure their teams have a supportive, collaborative environment, which offers good work/life balance, and is fun too.

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Read more about these 5 steps to grow employee engagement in the full article here.

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For more ideas on improving employee engagement as a manager, see these blogs:

• Employee engagement models: which is best for your team?
• How to get started with remote employee engagement
• Fun free online games to increase employee engagement
• Why employee engagement contents are a bad idea

How to use tech to increase engagement with less effort 

There are a wealth of employee engagement apps on the market. Each offers a mix of tools to help you measure employee engagement, seek feedback, and take action on the data you collect. 

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Ultimately, online employee engagement platforms are designed to make increasing engagement as quick and easy as possible.

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These are our top three employee engagement solutions:

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1. The easiest way to engage remote teams: Gomada

Price: Starts free

Best for: Building unstoppable remote teams

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Gomada is a remote team building platform that measures four dimensions of your team engagement: see above. Gomada team to complete.

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2. Recognize employee contributions with Motivosity

Price: Starts from $2/month per employee

Best for: Helping employees feel valued

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Motivosity is the ideal tool to ensure employees feel appreciated at work. It allows you to provide public and private kudos, give tangible rewards, and celebrate birthdays and work anniversaries with a few clicks.

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3. Encourage collaboration with Ideanote

Price: Starts from free to $1,249/month, depending on company size

Best for: Collaboration and collecting feedback & ideas

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Ideanote was designed to help leaders collect ideas and feedback from their teams. It allows managers to create customizable funnels and workflows to collect, track, and bring good ideas to life.  

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For more of our top employee engagement solutions, read this one.

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It’s not all on the manager! Here’s what top companies do to increase engagement

Yes, this may be a manager's guide to employee engagement, but we’ve got news: employee engagement isn’t all on you! 

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Employee engagement requires a top-down approach, including all leaders and employees.

3 company-wide activities to boost employee engagement

1. Communicate a strong company vision - Employees need to know what they’re working on and why. How is their work contributing to the company’s success? While you, as a manager, can communicate this, it should be something that is regularly shared by all levels of leadership.
2. Give frequent feedback - Let your employees know they are responsible for giving regular feedback so that any complaints or challenges can be addressed as soon as possible. Suffering in silence harms employee engagement. 
3. Encourage employees to ask for what they need - As well as giving feedback, employees have a responsibility to ask for what they need to carry out their tasks as effectively as possible - whether that’s equipment, further direction, or team support. Remind employees: ‘if you don’t ask, you don’t get’. 

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‍Want specific examples of what action other companies have taken? Take a look at this piece on 3 top companies getting their employee engagement right and how they’re doing it.