7 Cool Engagement Tricks You Aren’t Using

Any business that wishes to reach its full potential will only achieve success on the backs of a team of thoroughly engaged employees.

Are you doing enough to keep your employees engaged? Here are seven tricks that should help your employees learn to love their jobs even more:

01. Use the Giphy integration with Slack

It’s no secret many companies are using Slack to communicate these days. If your team is one of them, it’s worth examining whether you’re making the most out of the business messaging service. For example, did you know you can integrate Giphy with Slack? In addition to posting gifs that make work-related chats more fun, there are a few secret commands you can use too. Good times!

02. Mimic Google’s 80/20 time

When Google was just starting out, the company allowed its workers to spend 80% of their time tackling their job responsibilities and 20% of their time focusing on pet projects that they’d enjoy.

Believe it or not, Gmail, AdSense, and Google News grew out of projects developed during the 20% time. It might not make sense for your company to give your employees one day every week to pursue their own interests. But how about one day every month?

03. Build an amazing office

Want your employees to be super excited to show up to work every day? Build an office that people don’t want to leave. Companies increasingly understand the importance of design and how it relates to productivity and employee happiness. Colors, open space, and natural light matter. While you’re at it, why not put up a community chalkboard your employees can use to share insights and messages with each other?

04. Hire for culture fit

According to our Engagement Report, the number one thing employees like about their jobs is the people they work with. Rather than risk ruining morale by hiring the wrong person, consider how prospective candidates fit in with your culture. When you hire for culture fit, you increase the chances that your existing employees will get along swimmingly with their new coworkers — which should boost engagement.

05. Give back to the community

Many of today’s workers care deeply about doing meaningful work. Unfortunately, not every company is solving the world hunger crisis or trying to help people climb out of poverty. An easy way to encourage your employees is by dedicating time each month to give back to the community as a team. Whether that means cooking a meal together for the less fortunate or cleaning up someone’s yard during the fall is up to you.

06. Really allow flexible scheduling

If you’ve ever worked for a company that required you to take paid time off to go to the dentist or renew your car registration at the DMV, you know how frustrating and demoralizing things can get.

Thanks to the Internet and mobile devices, it’s easier than ever before to tackle work from anywhere. Getting work done between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. is no longer necessary. Embrace flexible scheduling — and really mean it — and your employees will be more engaged.

07. Let employees work with other departments

While many of today’s workers believe professional development opportunities are one of the most important things any company can offer, only 25% of employees believe their organizations offer ample support for career growth, our Engagement Report revealed. An easy way to support your employees’ professional development is by letting them work in other departments every now and again. That way, they’ll get exposed to new ideas, new technologies, and new platforms — without any cost to you.

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