As easy as it may sound, increasing employee engagement and working through various human resource strategies is hard for HR managers. But, it does not have to be that challenging.

Every small business owner and HR manager wants his or her team to step-up-the-ladder with every project and work towards success. This is possible only with constant employee engagement activities, motivation, and review.

No matter how appealing the old-school employee engagement strategies are, it won’t hurt to use a cheat sheet to increase employee performance once in a while.  There’s no harm in using the shortcut for long-term results, and as the organization grows, this becomes extremely important.

So, if you are running short on time or just running out of patience, here’s your ultimate cheat sheet for engaging employees.

Encourage communication

For humans, communication is the key. Whether it is freely talking to your boss, HR manager, or boss’s boss, everything should be smooth. There is no point in keeping your employees from freely communicating because that is how we express. So, to promote high performance, enable a system where your employees can openly express themselves.

Conduct get-togethers

Get-togethers may seem irrelevant, but it is the easiest way to let out the stress and tension. One day in a month, give your team a chance to unwind and relax, away from work. Work can become exhausting for everyone no matter how much you love it. Getting a day off and being able to spend it with co-workers is the best de-stressing activity.

Assign mentors

Everyone needs a mentor, and the only difference is some people find one without having to struggle and some don’t. So assign mentors for every team and try if you can keep mentors and managers separate. Some people are not okay with their managers or they need advice related to their managers. In such a scenario, they need a mentor who is not their boss.

Provision efficiency rewards

These rewards don’t have to be monetary or in any such form. A simple appreciation wall will work. Form an appreciation wall where every week you can declare the employee of the week. People will work hard to get up on the wall, hence, increasing efficiency.

Encourage wellness

Work is better when you are mentally and physically fit. While most people may still be physically fit, mentally they can be under a lot of stress. So, a little exercise session or flash-mobs on weekends can help reduce this pressure of work. Once this pressure and stress is released, work gets better.

Take it easy on new hires

New hires need extra motivation, and this is because they are new, they don’t know anyone, they don’t know the work culture, and they are nervous. If you load them with work on the first day, it will not boost their morale, in fact, decrease it. Take it easy on new employees, and give them a day or two to get to know things.

Offer work flexibility

Here flexibility does not indicate the ability to deliver work at any time. It just means the ability to work without your boss standing on your head all the time. This makes employees less efficient in two ways: first, they feel the constant pressure which reduces the work progress, and second, most employees start feeling that their managers don’t trust them with work. Both the cases are bad for employees. Being the HR manager, make sure that managers and team leads don’t hover their team members.

Conduct weekly meetings

Monthly and yearly reviews are common, weekly reviews are short and include a quick follow up on what is going on. This doesn’t have to be a collective activity, just every team working it out separately with their boss along with HR manager. Everyone gives his or her feedback, and you get a clear understanding of what is happening. Once you know what is going on in office, you can reach to the core of the problem and rectify issues rapidly.

Celebrate occasions

Celebrating birthdays and festivals are not compulsory but form a healthy environment in office. People who are away from family will feel less alone if you do something for them in office only. Moreover, these celebrations don’t have to be huge parties, for instance, on someone’s birthday just a cake with some balloons will do wonders.

Conduct brainstorming sessions

Brainstorming sessions are excluded from almost every office and the reason behind is still unknown. However, if you look at it, then, in reality, human brain constantly needs something or other. This comes with brainstorming sessions. Also, here, one thing to note is that brainstorming should be relevant, you should not involve content team in brainstorming session of quality analysis team.

Conclusion

The bottom line is there are various fast methods for HR managers to increase employee engagement activities. You just have to stay in touch with your employees to keep coming up with your own cheat sheet.