How You Can Create an Incredible Employee Engagement Action Plan in 4 Easy Steps!

Talking a big game about employee engagement is easy the real work begins when making an actual employee engagement action plan. Never worrying about having disengaged employees might be the dream. There are many different ways and employee engagement strategies to achieve that dream. In fact, we’ve listed some of the best employee engagement trends of 2024 in our blog before.

Today we are focused on how to make those strategies more achievable. That goes through creating successful employee engagement action plans. Creating the perfect employee engagement action plan can make the difference between your employee engagement strategies being a success or a failure.

What is the framework of an employee engagement action plan? Today, we find out! So without keeping you waiting any longer, let’s move forward to how you can create an employee engagement plan in 4 steps.

4 Steps to Creating an Employee Engagement Action Plan

Step 1: Understanding Employee Engagement

In order to create a successful employee engagement action plan, it’s crucial to have a clear understanding of what exactly employee engagement means and what it entails. Here we have three very important components:

• Employee engagement surveys
• Feedback
• Data analysis

Employee Engagement Surveys

One of the easiest things you can do to figure that out is to conduct employee engagement surveys. This will give you an idea of what your employees love about their jobs and what they’d like to see improved.

Asking the right employee engagement survey questions can make the difference between a weak employee engagement action plan and a strong one! If you have an effective employee engagement survey tool at your disposal, you can conduct them in the form of pulse surveys. This lets you take quick and easy action.

Feedback

Another way to get a handle on employee engagement is to analyze feedback from your employees. This could be in the form of comments from performance reviews, exit interviews, or even just casual conversations you have with your team members. Pay attention to common themes that come up and use that information to help inform your action plan.

Data Analysis

Once you’ve got a good sense of what’s going on with your employees, it’s time to get introspective and analytical! You need to dive deeper and identify the root causes of low engagement. Maybe it’s because people feel like they’re not being challenged enough, or maybe they’re feeling overwhelmed and overworked.

Regardless of the cause, getting to the bottom of it will be key to fixing the problem. If your employee feedback and engagement survey solutions can convert their existing data into reports that give you some actual insight, this process is made a whole lot easier!

The Tools You Need

This post wouldn’t be very helpful if we didn’t offer you an actual solution to go with these suggestions. If you are an organization that uses Microsoft Teams on a daily basis, one of the best solutions you can use is Teamflect!

Teamflect is an all-in-one performance management software that you can integrate into Microsoft Teams, providing you with employee engagement survey questions at the ready, an impeccable 360-degree feedback module, and Power BI reports that give you helpful insights.

Step 2: Setting Objectives and Goals

Alright, now that you’ve got a good understanding of employee engagement in your organization and what drives employee engagement, it’s time to start setting some objectives and goals for our employee engagement action plan. This is where you get to figure out what you want to achieve and how you’re going to get there. And let’s be honest, it’s probably the most exciting part of the process! Why? Because setting goals is always more fun than following through with them! Today, we do both!

Define your engagement objectives. These should be specific, measurable, and directly related to the feedback you’ve received from your employees.

If you found out that employees feel like they’re not being challenged enough, your objective might be to create new opportunities for professional development.

Set some goals that align with your engagement objectives. Make sure they’re specific, measurable, and achievable.

If your objective is to create new opportunities for professional development, your goal might be to offer two new training sessions per month.

A quick note related to step 2 of creating an employee engagement action plan: it’s important to align your engagement objectives and goals with your overall business goals. This way, you’ll ensure that your efforts are not only improving employee engagement but also contributing to the success of your business as a whole.

Step 3: The Actual Plan

The research? Done! Goals and objectives? Set! Oh, mama! You know what time it is, don’t you? Yes, you do! It’s time time to put all of that together, build on each aspect further, and create your actual employee engagement action plan. Excited? You should be! Let’s go!

So, what should you include in your engagement action plan? Well, first and foremost, it should include specific actions you’ll take to reach your engagement objectives and goals. Remember the example about creating training opportunities we covered in the previous step? Let’s develop it by listing the specific actions we’ll be taking:

If your goal is to offer two new training sessions per month, your action plan might include:

• Scheduling the sessions
• Identifying trainers
• Promoting the sessions to employees

Another important component of your engagement action plan should be a timeline. Make sure to include key milestones and deadlines so you can track your progress and adjust your plan as needed.

You should also include in your employee engagement action plan, the resources you will need to take the actions you’ve decided on. This can include:

• Budget
• Personel
• Technology

While you’re at it, remember to include some of the potential roadblocks you might face along the way.

Before moving on to the final phase, make sure to involve your employees in the creation of your engagement action plan. After all, they’re the ones who will be impacted by it! Encourage them to provide feedback and ideas, and make sure to communicate openly and regularly about your progress.

Step 4: Implementing the Action Plan

So… The title of this article might have been a bit misleading. Turns out it only took three not-so-simple steps to create your employee engagement action plan. That said, you must be crazy if you thought we would let you go without helping you implement the employee engagement action plan. Just what kind of blog do you think we are? We have your back! Besides, this part will be easy, since you have your awesome new employee engagement action plan already at hand.

As you’re following through with your objectives, whether they are offering new training programs, creating a culture of recognition, or simply offering a more flexible schedule to your employees, you need to take each step with grace.

It is really important to track your own progress throughout this process and make adjustments as needed. Use your timeline to keep yourself on track, and regularly check in with employees to see how they’re feeling about the changes. If something isn’t working, don’t be afraid to pivot and try a different approach.

Always remember to celebrate your successes and share your progress with your employees. This will not only help to keep everyone motivated, but it will also help to build momentum and keep your engagement efforts moving forward.

Employee Engagement Plan Examples

Here are some examples you can follow when you’re implementing employee engagement action plans in your workspace.

Communication and Feedback Improvement

Implement better communication channels and encourage feedback so that there is an easier flow of communication, which will positively impact employee satisfaction.

Just to give a couple of examples of how this can come to life, you can implement regular town hall meetings. Additionally, you can also internal communication platforms other than a simple pulse survey to receive and provide organizational news.

Career Growth

You can boost employee engagement by creating opportunities for growth for your employees.

You can conduct skill assessments to identify improvement points and provide the necessary support in those areas. Implementing mentorship programs and helping employees develop a structured path with a strategic framework is also a good way to amplify employee engagement.

Well-Being Focus

What better way to improve employee engagement than to provide a better work-life balance for your people?

Introduce flexible work hours, and remote working options to ensure feasibility for your employees. In addition, implement wellness programs that will provide mental health and stress management resources. Finally, you can make sure to encourage vacation days and establish an after-hours discouragement policy to help improve employee satisfaction.

Overall, there are many ways to approach how you can provide a better, and happier work environment for your employees. Choose whatever ways that you can implement for your organization and be the satisfied workplace everyone dreams of!

Employee Engagement When Remote

You might be thinking that all these employee engagement improvements are easier said than done, especially if you’re working from home. We understand! So here are some tips on how to make sure your employee engagement initiatives come to life even in a remote setting!

1. Communication Channels

Making sure to clear the path for clear and consistent communication is key. Remote setting’s biggest challenge tends to be the fact that employees lack those informal interactions they can easily get by grabbing a cup of coffee at an office. So it’s vital that you keep an open line for socialization opportunities during work even if you’re remote.

You can conduct regular meetings or video conferences just set for coffee breaks or implement Monday check-ins and Friday check-outs. This way, there is a set time frame that everyone knows is just for social interactions and not work all the time.

Doing these regular meetups and setting aside time to keep employees updated on company events as well, can provide a sense of connection and keep employees informed. Encouraging transparent communication not only fosters a sense of belonging but also ensures that remote employees feel valued and connected to the broader organizational mission.

2. Company Culture

Make sure that you foster a strong company culture that everyone is equally informed about. This is crucial to ensuring that the company environment is sustaining employee engagement. You can do so by promoting virtual team-building activities, like online workshops.

By establishing and reinforcing such core values you can help create a shared sense of identity among remote employees, making them feel more connected to their colleagues and the organization in the process. In the meantime, don’t forget to recognize and celebrate achievements, whether personal or professional, which also contribute to a positive remote work culture and motivate your employees to stay engaged and committed.

3. The Right Tools

Provide the right tools to your employees to help them stay connected. This is a big part of showing support for your team and giving them the right resources to have the experience an employee deserves in order to stay engaged.

Investing in a reliable communication tool and other trustworthy tools that are needed in your team’s day-to-day will provide your employees with the sense that they are well taken care of, and enhance productivity and connectivity in the process. Offer training support to your team to leverage these tools effectively and help your team navigate remote work challenges.

Additionally, make sure to show that you are actively acknowledging the importance of work-life balance, and promoting flexible schedules. This will help empower remote employees and help them manage their workload efficiently. Hence an increased quality of work and engagement.

By combining clear and effective communication, building and projecting a strong company culture, and providing the right technological infrastructure, organizations can create an environment that fosters engagement and productivity among remote employees. Take these tips to heart and you will not fail in creating a more engaged community at work!

The Benefits of Employee Engagement Action Plan

Creating an action plan for employee engagement and how to increase it, especially in remote settings, has many benefits that can motivate you to create an engagement action plan of your own.

1. Enhanced Productivity and Performance: An employee engagement action plan provides a roadmap for cultivating a motivated and high-performing workforce. Engaged employees are naturally more committed to their work, tend to take more initiative, and go above and beyond to achieve organizational goals.

2. Improved Employee Retention: Employee turnover can be costly and disruptive for any organization. An effective employee engagement action plan helps cultivate a positive work environment where employees feel valued, supported, appreciated, and invested in the organization’s success, contributing greatly to employee satisfaction and well-being.

3. Increased Innovation and Creativity: Engaged employees are more likely to share ideas, collaborate with colleagues, and innovate to drive success. An employee engagement action plan encourages a culture of open communication, feedback, and continuous improvement, empowering employees to contribute their unique perspectives and insights.

4. Strengthened Employee Alignment with Organizational Goals: Employees who are engaged and aligned with organizational goals are better equipped to contribute to the achievement of strategic objectives in both the short and long term. An employee engagement action plan ensures that employees understand the organization’s mission, vision, and values and feel connected to its purpose.

5. Enhanced Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty: Engaged employees play a crucial role in delivering exceptional customer experiences which is crucial to organizational success. By investing in employee training, recognition programs, and service excellence initiatives, organizations can create memorable experiences that delight customers and drive business growth.

6. Competitive Advantage and Business Success: In the modern competitive landscape, employee engagement can be a key differentiator for organizations. An employee engagement action plan helps organizations attract top talent, retain high performers, and create a culture of excellence that drives business success.