Bad news for companies battling workplace burnout, high turnover, and plummeting productivity. According to this employee engagement report from Gallup, just 34% of employees qualified as "engaged."
The good news, though, is you can do something about it! Motivate the other 66% (and watch your productivity levels rise) with the help of this practical employee engagement guide.
Below, we'll cover everything you need to know about employee engagement and best practices:
- What is employee engagement?
- Why does employee engagement matter?
- Employee engagement vs. employee satisfaction
- Key drivers of employee engagement and why video is a powerful tool
- 15 actionable strategies to improve employee engagement, plus video strategies that work
What is employee engagement?
Employee engagement feels like an HR buzzword, something that's lost any sense of meaning while we're all "circling back" and "taking things offline."
But unlike some of these more egregious examples, employee engagement still has meaning — and the definition is pretty simple. Employee engagement is a measure of how committed an employee is to helping their organization achieve its goals.
More than just hours clocked in, employee engagement is about the emotional connection an employee has (or, in so many cases, doesn't have). A highly engaged employee feels invested in their work, connected to their colleagues, and motivated to contribute.
Why does employee engagement matter?
One highly engaged employee can significantly affect the success of a department or project. But when you have a whole squad of engaged team members, you have the winning formula! Research consistently shows the bottom-line organizational benefits of employee engagement.
High-impact facts associated with engaged employees
- 81% less absenteeism, 23% more profitability, and 14% higher productivity, according to Gallup
- 87% less likely to leave their organization
- 4.6 times more likely to perform their best work
- 89% are more likely to recommend their company as a solid place to work
Taken together, these statistics are challenging to ignore, right? (Not to mention — disengaged employees cost U.S. companies around $550 billion per year!)
Is employee engagement the same as employee satisfaction?
The short answer is no.
Although "employee engagement" and "employee satisfaction" are often used interchangeably, they are not the same concepts. You might focus on the wrong thing if you aren't intentional about your workplace strategies.
For example, an employee (let's call her Emily) might be satisfied by a job with predictable working hours, a livable wage, and an office-wide open bar every Friday at 4 pm. Emily may even be satisfied enough to stay at this job for years.
- But does she feel emotionally involved?
- Does she invest her full effort?
Probably not.
Emily clocks in, does her job, then clocks out. She's satisfied but not engaged.
Of course, employee engagement and job satisfaction are related. Employees must be satisfied with their work to engage meaningfully. So, you could say that employee engagement hinges on job satisfaction — but not vice versa.
What are the key drivers of employee engagement?
So, if a worker like Emily needs more than a "satisfying" work environment to feel genuinely engaged, the next question is obvious. What do they need to drive morale?
Most employees need these key drivers:
- Focus on strengths
- Purpose
- Sense of agency
- Professional development and opportunity to advance
- Ongoing conversations with team members and managers
- Caring managers
Viewed from this lens, the more you can support your employees as people — the more engaged they'll be. But let's take this a bit further. One overlooked need in many "how to engage your employee" posts is the use of technology. Consider this eye-opening question posed in a Deloitte report:
"If technology has transformed how companies interact with customers, can it do more to revolutionize their relationships with their employees?"
With this point in mind, technology, especially video, should be utilized when engaging employees and meeting their needs. Why? Video is transformational.
Why video is king
- Using more visuals in internal comms can save an organization time, potentially over 25 hours per year per employee.
- Companies with advanced technologies, like video, experienced a 20-25% increase in productivity.
- Incorporating video into training increases retention. 95% of employees are more likely to remember what they watch in a video than what they read in text.
- Video onboarding/training allows employees flexibility. A report found that 58% of employees preferred to train at their own pace.
- Research suggests multimedia employee training videos promote worker self-efficacy and boost personal performance.
Numbers don't lie. Now that you have concrete facts on the importance of employee engagement and how video can increase employee productivity, purpose, and development, let's turn this information into action.
15 actionable employee engagement ideas and video tips that work
1. Use video to establish a clear company vision
For employees to be authentically engaged, they must be aligned with your company's core values. If your organization works in a space your employees find unnecessary or objectionable, it'll be hard to get engagement out of them, no matter how hard you try.
First, make sure that your company leadership has established clear core values. Research shows that 90% of employees who work at organizations with strong values and purpose say they're more motivated, inspired, and loyal.
Next, make it a priority to communicate these values with candidates during the recruitment and hiring process.
Pro tip: Regularly share these values with your existing employees to build an emotional connection around this shared vision. This is where creating inspiring business videos can help! For example, developing a video showcasing company culture can effectively convey your vision and value prop.
2. Audit your company culture
Now's the time to examine your company culture. While it often springs from core values, as organizations grow, the culture can take on a life of its own—for better or worse.
To identify the root causes of disengaged employees, launch a company culture audit to understand your strengths and weaknesses. Ask employee engagement survey questions like:
- Do employees feel supported at work?
- Do managers show trust in employees and provide them with autonomy?
- How are employee mistakes and errors of judgment handled?
- Do you treat employees as real people with meaningful lives outside of work?
Based on the findings, make adjustments wherever you see signs of a toxic workplace. This might mean shaking up your leadership team, promoting new organizational management, or fine-tuning your internal comms processes.
Pro tip: Once you've improved in this area, share the message! Spread your positive approach with powerful company culture videos for the general public, applicants, and current employees. Witnessing these values come to life through video narratives can be a powerful motivator.
3. Rethink your work environment
For this employee engagement idea, we mean "work environment" physically and digitally.
Physically
- How comfortable are your employees in their physical workspace?
- Do they have adequate equipment, rest areas, facilities, and amenities?
- Is there space for privacy when needed?
- Do employees have the tools and resources needed to excel at their tasks?
You may not have the budget for a major office renovation. Still, even small changes can support greater comfort: new chairs, a better lunchroom, more private meeting spaces, more collaborative tools, etc.
Digitally
- How many digital demands are placed on your employees?
- Do their computers feel like their own space or a place of monitoring?
- Are employees pressured to stay on camera unnecessarily?
- Is there an unrealistic expectation for response time via email or instant message?
Pro tip: Wherever possible, reduce the pressure to constantly be "on." For example, consider substituting real-time internal comms with strategic video or allowing employees to opt out of meetings when necessary.
4. Examine what you’re offering
A person has to feel safe and secure before considering elevated ideas like goal setting, self-actualization, or, in this case, quarterly profit. For the workplace, this mostly translates to HR and cold hard compensation.
What are you offering in terms of fair wages and benefits? Is it equitable across genders and orientations? Do you provide regular raises or incentives? Adequate compensation is critical to job satisfaction, which is, in turn, crucial to engaged employees.
Pro tip: Create a video that demonstrates what you are offering regarding salary, benefits, and job incentives. Include key points to drive home the message that your organization is fair and equitable. This easy employee engagement idea will reap its weight in rewards.
5. Revamp your onboarding process with video
Oftentimes, the warning signs of a soon-to-be-disengaged employee can be spotted immediately. Key red flags: boredom, absenteeism, lack of enthusiasm, confusion, fear of making mistakes…
Such early warning signs are frequently attributed to a "bad apple" of hire, but often, the problem is within the system. The bottom line is that poor employee onboarding leads to poor employee performance.
Ensure your workforce is set up for success by investing in the quality of your onboarding experience. This is where using video really shines.
Pro tips:
- Create a clear, welcoming, and engaging new employee orientation, prioritizing interaction and collaboration.
- Provide a mix of live and on-demand training to avoid overwhelming new employees. Interactive video lets employees watch independently while still assessing their knowledge.
- Another employee engagement idea is to give supportive feedback regularly during the first few months of work. You can do this through short videos that employees can view on their own time. This has a bonus effect as it also helps with employee retention!
6. Empower learning and development
Continuing the supportive learning environment long after the initial hire period is essential. Allowing employees to grow in their expertise and passion is a shortcut to long-term engagement. A LinkedIn report found that 94% of employees would remain with a company longer if training opportunities were available.
A culture of learning comes from investing in learning and development (L&D). These experiences can be formal or informal but should also be easy to digest. Breaking up training content into smaller chunks that can be woven into other activities enhances learning and improves employee retention.
With this in mind, managers can use video to improve employee training significantly. They can create bite-sized micro-learning videos that can easily integrate into workers' weekly schedules. Consider other video learning and development strategies below.
Pro tips:
- Publish high-quality, engaging video training for staff.
- Gamify learning modules! Use game elements in the videos like badges, leaderboards, or points to make learning engaging and fun.
- Make training more collaborative by incorporating live audience responses.
- Allow team members to lead webinars or in-person training based on employee experience.
These easy video tips and employee engagement ideas will create a supportive, interactive, and lasting learning environment.
7. Invest in management
You've probably heard the old adage: "People quit managers, not companies." A Gallup study proved this true, demonstrating that 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores can be directly attributed to managers.
(While this study is older, the core dynamics are unlikely to have changed—especially as employee engagement is even lower now than when the study was conducted.)
Support employee productivity through better management by trying these ideas:
- Promoting managers with strong soft skills like empathy and communication.
- Providing a way for employees to seek HR help with a difficult manager.
- Establishing a regular schedule of communication between managers and direct reports.
- Creating an objective system for setting goals and measuring KPIs.
Pro tip: Use video and other multimedia tools to create conflict resolution and motivation training content. This allows managers to learn at their own pace.
8. Use video for employee feedback
Employees who don't feel heard won't be engaged, so it's critical to get employee feedback on a regular basis. Not just to collect it, either, but to actually listen and respond to it.
The simplest form of feedback would be a periodic employee engagement survey.
Other options could be face-to-face check-ins or small focus groups—just as long as your organization allows employees to express themselves freely and without fear of retribution.
Pro tip: Once you receive the surveys, use video to create thoughtful responses—especially in a remote work situation. You can use video and audio to convey appreciation to employees for their time and effort in providing feedback, answer any concerns directly, and create an open dialogue.
9. Tailor communication styles to fit employees
Internal communications are undoubtedly one driver of employee disengagement. Both too many and too few communications can create a stressful working environment for teams, especially when they are confusing, unpredictable, or consistently negative in tone.
Evaluate your current internal comms strategy and consider these questions:
- How often are we communicating with staff?
- Are employees allowed to have a two-way conversation with leadership?
- How many real-time meetings are required? Is this reasonable?
The key is finding a balance of just enough information so employees feel valued and informed without getting overwhelmed. For most companies, the right course of action is to simplify and reduce, and leveraging video can help!
For example, replacing even a few hours of mandatory meetings with more convenient internal comms videos can save time, boost morale, and give staff more control over their workflow. Below are tips on improving engagement in your internal communication videos.
Pro tips:
- Keep it simple. Strive for videos that are 2-3 minutes long.
- Boost engagement by including polls and quizzes or by creating animation videos!
- Encourage user-generated content: have employees create and share their own videos.
- Monitor engagement. Improve your strategy by tracking video engagement with analytics.
10. Spotlight employee success through video
Engaged employees feel respected and valued at work, which is why regular recognition is essential.
Consider trying these small, personal gestures:
- create a personal video "thanks" from a manager
- a quick shout-out on the company Slack channel or email listserv
- a video feature on the company's social media channels or print newsletter
Pro tip: Recognize the whole team! Celebrate employee achievements through an appreciation video. For example, create a highlight reel of team accomplishments over the year and distribute it on all media channels. Imagine their excitement when they click on it!
11. Use video to foster collaboration and innovation
A Forbes study found that organizations that promoted collaborative work were 5x as likely to be high performing.
But the advantages do not end there! Employee collaboration and innovation also result in these benefits:
- improved employee engagement
- higher levels of motivation
- enhanced problem solving
- improved decision making
Video is an essential tool for facilitating collaboration and innovation. For example, it can enable real-time communication and partnership across different time zones. Video can also create rapport among employees, helping them share insights, ideas, and feedback.
Pro tip: Consider recording and sharing brainstorming sessions. Utilize videos and other multimedia tools to help creatively showcase best practices, success stories, and case studies. Documenting these activities captures the spirit of collaboration and engages employees.
12. Cultivate employee agency
This employment engagement idea boils down to giving workers as many choices as possible so that they feel like the captain of their ship. For example, you might allow employees to:
- Work flexible hours based on family needs
- Choose their preferred office location
- Set their own lunch hour
- Switch between offices during the week
- Prioritize their own project workflows
- Set certain hours as "no meeting" times
Choice is an important means of signaling trust in your employees and demonstrating that their preferences matter — both of which help to improve employee engagement.
Pro tip: Encourage employees to be creative when asking for a pay raise or promotion. Let them know that video is an excellent tool for showcasing their successes, talents, and what they've learned when applying for advancement.
13. Look for opportunities to build meaning
Not every job can entail saving the world, but every workplace can create opportunities for greater meaning that engage their workforce. These might include:
- company-wide volunteer days
- work-related donations or charity drives
- employee-led fundraising
- opportunities for professionally relevant pro bono work
Pro tip: Give employees the right video tools and software, such as creative templates, to streamline philanthropic ideas or projects. For example, your workers may want to create a powerful call-to-action video to raise money for a cause. Make sure they have what they need to accomplish these charitable goals.
14. Show employees the impact of their work
When stuck in the grind of the workweek with a million tasks on your plate, it's easy to lose sight of the bigger picture. To combat these feelings of periodic employee burnout, highlight the organizational "why" for your employees.
Pro tip:
- Send out an email recapping the impact of their efforts.
- Have the CEO do a quick screen recording to show the bottom-line results.
- Share a customer testimonial video expressing gratitude for your team's work.
15. Make employee wellness a priority
According to a report by the American Psychological Association, 89% of workers at companies that support well-being initiatives are more likely to recommend their company as a good place to work. What does this all mean for managers?
Keeping employees engaged and healthy = company success.
The great news? Video can be a manager's best asset in promoting a healthy work-life balance. Consider the strategies below to get started.
Pro tip:
- Create videos (or compile videos from YouTube) that showcase various health and wellness techniques, such as yoga, fitness, mindfulness exercises, or healthy cooking demos. Send these videos out regularly to show you care about your team's well-being.
- Develop videos (or find video resources) that create awareness of mental wellness concerns at home and work.
- Send out videos that include polls and surveys that employees can take anonymously to evaluate if the organization is doing enough to support their needs.
Which employee engagement idea will you try?
This guide covers a lot of information, so start slowly. Take one or two of the most doable employee engagement ideas above and create a plan for implementing them over the next few months. You could start with an employee engagement survey of staff or brainstorm videos to streamline internal comms.
Wherever you start, the secret is just that: get started! With a little experimentation and solid video tools, you'll find an employee engagement best practice or strategy that works for your team and unlocks the productivity that can only come from people who are genuinely invested in their work.