Inexpensive Employee Engagement Tactics For Small Businesses

For any business big or small, employee engagement is a major concern. In fact, in the modern world, businesses are increasingly acknowledging the benefits of high employee engagement. However, driving exemplary employee engagement seems easier said than done.

To validate this, the statistics on global engagement levels in the workplace paint a dismal picture. Insights from a Gallup survey revealed that not more than 20 percent of the global workforce is engaged in their work. Having said that, it is time businesses look for novel approaches to employee engagement. The need of the hour is to take a fresh approach to enhance employee engagement and employee experience.

This blog puts forth some unique employee engagement ideas for small and medium sized businesses. Needless to say, big enterprises can handle engagement better as they have the finances to do so. However, small businesses may not have that kind of financial leverage to allocate large funds to employee engagement strategies.

As a small business owner, this blog can help you acquire some exceptional ideas and strategies to boost engagement. Once you decode the complex challenge of engagement, you can make your business far more successful and scalable.

To validate, as per Forbes, organizations with high engagement can make businesses 21 percent more profitable. Did you know that? This clearly explains why employee engagement should be a greater priority for small businesses. When you have a highly engaged workforce, you can change the fortunes of your startup. Who knows your engaged employees may lead you to the Fortune 500 enterprises club someday.

So, let us get started with the most actionable and effective small business employee engagement ideas.

 

6 Ways Small Businesses Can Boost Employee Engagement

 

#1. Delegate more authority

“No person will make a great business who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit” – Andrew Carnegie

This quote from Andrew Carnegie explains the significance of delegation in business. As a leader, you cannot look after everything and you should not even aim for it. When you have a team of bright minds, why not share responsibilities with them?

In fact, for small businesses, delegation can be a great way to engage employees. To explain, when you share more authority and responsibilities with your team, it empowers them. It makes them more accountable, responsible, and engaged in the workplace.

Besides, it fosters a greater sense of workplace belonging. To elucidate, did you know that as per Deloitte, workplace belonging can improve job performance by 56 percent? Also, by promoting a greater sense of belonging, organizations can pull down absenteeism by 75 percent.

Moreover, when you delegate new responsibilities to your employees, they get a great opportunity to learn new dimensions of professionalism. Having said that, it satisfies their expectation of workplace learning and career development. Also, delegation promotes greater trust in the workplace. Of course, you will only delegate power and responsibility to someone you trust, right?

In fact, you will be amused to know that employees in high trust companies are 76 percent more engaged. Besides, in high-trust organizations, employee productivity is 50 percent higher. These insights by Harvard Business Review make a stronger case for delegation.

As you can see, a simple act of delegating can make such a significant difference to employee engagement levels. Are you still unsure about bringing this change to your leadership style?

 

#2. Utilize non-monetary rewards

For small businesses, offering hefty employee rewards may not be a feasible thing to do. Also, small businesses may not be able to allocate large amounts to expensive employee reward programs. In that case, non-monetary rewards can fill in the gap pretty well.

We do know that employee rewards are imperative for cultivating high engagement and retention. In fact, for young generations including millennials and Gen Z employees, rewards matter a lot. Apollo Technical reveals that employee rewards and recognition boost engagement by 14 percent.

The bottom line is that employee rewards are crucial for performance management in every organization. Having said that, for small businesses, the budget constraints are for real. However, you need to acknowledge the fact that gestures of recognition matter a lot more to employees than the price tag of the reward. This explains that you can drive high employee engagement even with non-monetary rewards.

The thumb rule is that the non-monetary rewards should offer great personalization. For instance, if an employee is a big fan of binge-watching, you can reward that employee with a Netflix subscription. Similarly, if an employee loves to read novels, you can reward them with some great novels.

With personalized rewards, you can make your employees feel valued and accepted. They will appreciate the fact that you acknowledge their preferences and emotions. In this way, in an inexpensive way, you can add immense value to employee engagement in the workplace.

 

Related: 7 Ways to Find Leadership Prospects in a Company

 

#3. Promote leadership opportunities

“As we look ahead into the new century, leaders will be those who empower others” – Bill Gates

These words of wisdom by Bill Gates explain the need for organizations to identify future leaders. When you envisage the future of your organization, you need reliable and transformational leaders. For that, you need to ensure that you create a workplace environment that offers prospects for leadership development.

As an additional bonus, offering leadership opportunities can also be a great way to enhance engagement. To elaborate, employees view leadership opportunities as career advancement prospects. For them, every opportunity to exhibit their leadership capabilities is a progressive step forward in the pursuit of career advancement. Also, it can be one of the best ways to identify leadership prospects in your company.

The best part is that promoting leadership opportunities in the workplace costs nothing. It is not necessary that you always have to offer leadership roles to your employees in the form of promotions. You can ask them to lead presentations, group discussions, or even during employee engagement activities.

The sense of empowerment they get from such opportunities will go a world of good to their zeal and zest. By investing in employee experience, you can also optimize your organization’s employee retention rates.

 

#4. Use social media for employee appreciation

Who says employee appreciation needs to be a costly affair every time? You can also compliment and appreciate your employees with a social media post. In fact, recognition on social media will make your employees the happiest. They can share appreciation posts from their personal handles and flaunt their moment of glory.

It is correct to say that in contemporary times, there is no platform as powerful as social media. Social media has become a force to reckon with and its outreach goes beyond billions of people. Having said that, employees will love to be appreciated on buzzing platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and so on.

As a startup, this can be an amazingly innovative way to extend employee appreciation. You can share the achievements, milestones, and contributions of your employees through heartfelt social media posts. Besides, you can also share appreciation through social media stories and even short videos.

To explain, you can make short videos in which all the co-workers speak about the achievements, sincerity, and contributions of the employee being appreciated. That can be a great way to win the heart of your employees and boost their motivation.

 

#5. Host mental wellness webinars

Wellness and employee engagement go hand in hand. Your employees will exhibit the highest engagement when their mental health is flourishing and they are at the best of their cognitive abilities. That is something we all will agree to, right?

Besides, it is also true that as the corporate world progresses further, the instances of employee burnout are also increasing. To substantiate, as per Gallup, 76 percent of workers experience burnout in different magnitudes. It is hence, fair to say that burnout rates are increasing at an alarming rate.

Having said that, it is essential for organizations to provide effective burnout assistance to employees. As a small business, investing in employee wellness programs may not be feasible for you. However, the least you can do is organize mental health webinars for your employees.

To explain, over the weekend, you can invite a mental health counselor to discuss mental health issues and how employees can keep burnout at bay. In this way, you can help them to rejuvenate their mental health and focus better on their work.

Besides, when you care for your employees, they will reciprocate with greater allegiance and loyalty. This allegiance will lead them to greater commitment, engagement, and better performance.

 

#6. Make decision-making more inclusive

Inclusive workplaces are often more engaged than others. This is for the simple reason that in inclusive workplaces, there is better cohesion and collaboration. To explain, collaboration is better in inclusive workplaces because of the positive workplace relationships.

Having said that, to foster high engagement, you need to make the workplace far more inclusive. A simple way to do that is to promote greater transparency and make decision-making inclusive. Whether you implement their recommendations or not is your discretion of course. But when you ask for their ideas, opinions, and perspectives, it does promote greater inclusion.

This can be a great way to empower your employees. When you give them the liberty to express themselves in the workplace without any bias, it boosts their confidence. Also, their allegiance toward you and the organization. All these factors will add to employee engagement in the workplace.

 

Summing up: Employee Engagement Tactics For Small Businesses

To encapsulate, employee engagement does not always have to be expensive. There are some incredible ways in which small businesses can facilitate high engagement. With the above tactics, you can keep motivation and engagement high at all times in an inexpensive way. Once you succeed in creating a high-performing culture with high engagement, you can steer your business to new horizons of success.

 

Autor Bio: Kiara Miller

 

Kiara Miller is a keen enthusiast when it comes to writing and she loves to express her views, opinions, and perspectives through her insightful articles. Also, as a content marketing specialist, she loves to design effective content campaigns and has a great knowledge of the kind of content that engages readers the most.
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