Speaker 1: Hi guys, employee engagement is not a buzzword anymore. It was about 10 years ago, but over the course of the years, it has organically become part of the HR function. So many companies that I speak to and meet at conferences or events have a fully fledged employee engagement department already. With the proven research and data from the last few decades, it's really hard to deny that a highly engaged workforce gives better customer service and significantly improves the bottom line performance of an organization. And many people will ask me though, how do you drive engagement within your organization? How are your employees always so happy? Well, it does not happen by accident, it's by design, lots of trial and error, some change management and a huge amount of teamwork. So this video is going to talk to you and take you through five simple and highly effective steps when forming an annual employee engagement strategy. These are the basics of employee engagement. For those of you who are more advanced on the subject matter, please check out the rest of my channel and enjoy all the other tried and tested recommendations and guidelines for a highly engaged workforce. I always like to hear from my audience, so please leave me a comment or reach out to me for further discussion. Okay, so here goes. Step one, for an engagement strategy to work and to become part of the organizational culture, it must be fully endorsed and supported by the utmost top level management and the executive committee of the company. I've had debates with many people about the fact that employee engagement, the score of the employee engagement in an organization should in fact be part of a company's annual key performance indicators and should even be on the goals of senior leaders. You know, what gets measured gets managed. This must be done in an authentic way though, but this is a whole different discussion, which I will not enter into at this time. So once your CEO is on board with the necessity of the employee engagement team and the fact that it is indispensable for a thriving organization, it's really up to you to set the scene. I divide employee engagement into a few different buckets, so I'm going to share those buckets with you in the following steps. Step two, the biggest bucket is internal communications. This is the biggest influencer of company culture. Informed employees are engaged employees. And so a significantly large part of the engagement strategy is a well thought out yearly calendar that will answer the five W's and the one H, which is what all journalists use. So what is that? That is who, what, when, where, why, and how many. Who, who are the groups of people that must receive this communication? Some messages are meant for the entire company, but others are only for select groups. Don't be a spammer. What, what will you be communicating? Create your pillars and make sure that they are aligned with those of the company. You can even, you know, talk through them with senior management in order to get their continuous buy-in. In fact, do that. If sustainability, for example, is a big part of your company, it's a big part of what your company does, then one of the pillars must definitely focus on communicating about that. When, when will you be communicating? What type of communication will be communicated daily? Will it be communicated weekly? Will it be communicated quarterly? Where, where will you communicate? Through which media? Will you use notice boards or posters or banners, emails, SMS, social media, town hall meetings, departmental briefings, the company intranet? There's so much. Why, what is the purpose of your communication? Does it align with the company values? And is it in line with the annual goals? How many? How many people is your message intended for? How often will you communicate? And what is your frequency? My top tip at this point would be to have a very high overview calendar and then to break down the calendar into quarters and work on adding the details on a quarterly basis. Of course, communication, as you know, should never be one way. So once you're done establishing your push communication strategy, then put together a full communication strategy. This really means how will you receive feedback on any of the information that you've communicated. Again, I'm going to apply here the five W's and the one H. Who? Who do you wish to hear back from? What? What type of feedback do you want? Will it be qualitative, which really means speaking to people? Or will it be quantitative, which is predominantly survey-based with numbers and statistics? That's not necessarily an open-ended question though. When? When will you receive this information? Will it be daily, monthly, quarterly? How about annually? Where? Where will you conduct town hall meetings, for instance, and organize lunch and learn Q&A sessions? Or where will you organize focus groups and speak to your different personas? Why? What is the purpose of you obtaining this feedback? What will you do with it? Is it a short pulse survey that you put together at least to measure the outcome of a new initiative? Or is it an exit interview to see why a particular person is leaving the company? I personally prefer stay interviews as opposed to exit interviews. And this type of interview takes place a lot before someone actually decides to leave the company. You can actually do something with the feedback that you receive from the person and perhaps change the work environment so that they would not even have to leave, so that you wouldn't even have to have that exit interview. But then again, this is a different topic, which I'll be discussing in another video. And finally, how many? Here you can refer to how many people you will include in the focus group. Or how will the town hall be organized? Will it be live or will it be virtual? Step three. In this next bucket, it's important to emphasize on the necessity of a company-wide rewards and recognition program. Something which is so coveted and respected that people feel honored to even be nominated, let alone winning. First and foremost, the program must be modeled on the company's core values, the company's mission, vision, and service culture. Reward what is important to you as a leader and be consistent and fair. Now, depending on the industry and your budgets, of course, you could offer large awards, such as an all-expense paid vacation for two, or perhaps an educational course, paid fully or partially sponsored. It could be a large sum of money or a normal regular sum of money that is donated to a charity of their choice. Or simply give them the money for their own intents and purposes. What I'm saying here is certificates, medals, and plaques are not enough. Rewarding and recognizing generously sets the tone for the rest of the organization. Make the reward enviable and something that employees would really have to strive for. The amount that you spend should be proportional to your budget, of course. From experience, I've learned that celebrating excellence must happen often. And I'm not talking about the instant rewards and recognition, which I'll touch upon later, a little bit later. I'm talking about the monthly, the quarterly, and the yearly ceremonies. Rewarding and recognizing a particular behavior aligned with your organizational values helps others to see what is important. Once again, depending on your budget, your nominees must be treated like customers. They must be kings. During their celebration, whether it's a breakfast, lunch, dinner, or tea ceremony, make sure you have one and make sure you treat them well. Make sure they remember it. There, you can also give out the certificates, the plaques, and the medals. Oh, and also a wall of fame would be preferable. Something that's done professionally and with attention to detail. I love attention to detail because really, this is the type of behavior that you want your employees to display. And I always look at what I do in the following way. Will people pay to be there? Will they pay to learn from this experience and take it to their company? And are attendees being treated as you would like to treat your customers? If the answer to these questions is a yes, then you're on the right track. I briefly mentioned instant rewards and recognition earlier. There's so much that you can do out there, beginning from instant recognition cards, which are given on the spot and perhaps lead to a reward or recognition of some sort once you collect a certain number. Also, the basics for any recognition. Recognizing those moments that matter to people, such as birthdays, wedding days, joining date anniversaries, births of children, graduations from university, welcome back to work from paternity or maternity, all of that. By the way, there are lots of online digital platforms that can be used for reward and recognition. I always like a balance and a blend of recognition, so I would recommend for you to use both types, of course, if your budget permits it. Other recognition programs could be focused on things that are part of the company culture. So if your company values loyalty and tenure, and that could be perhaps a long service award then, which would be another great celebration. I strongly believe that we must reward and recognize what we appreciate, and we will begin to see more of that behavior. Where the leader looks, the others follow. Please remember that you probably spend more time with your employees anyway, whether you work from home or not. So treat them with love and care, and they will reciprocate. Step four. In this next bucket, or the fourth step in the strategy for employee engagement, it's essential to highlight all the activities that must take place in a great place to work, somewhere with a thriving and inclusive company culture. I like to divide events into three. Those are the ones that focus on the social aspect, on the mental well-being, and those that are concentrated on the physical aspect. Again, there are so many that you can concentrate on, and they will depend on your audience and your budget. But I'm going to share a few of my favorites, which I think are universal. So for social activities, I recommend talent and barbecue nights. I also love cultural celebrations. Here in Dubai, there are people from over 100 nations. So let's celebrate diversity and be inclusive about it. For well-being and mental health, I recommend health fairs and check-up days that you can organize in conjunction with your preferred company medical insurance providers. Organize talks and seminars on those really prevalent illnesses, such as heart problems, diabetes, or cancer. And finally, for physical activities, I recommend company championships and tournaments. Perhaps the biggest loser, or at the least, participating in a variety of events that are organized by the city, by others in the city. Part five, and this is my favorite, this is the last bucket, which is creating your team of engagement champions. The best way to ensure your message gets across to as many people as possible is to have a representative from each department who will be in charge of carrying your message and organizing departmental, their own departmental strategy. Have regular monthly meetings with them, with these champions and really help them set that stage. This is also great for their growth and development and for their own improvement in the long run. Well, that's it for me. I'd like to give you a very short recap. Number one, get leadership buy-in. Number two, develop a holistic internal communications calendar. Number three, focus on rewards and recognition. Number four, organize a variety of community building events aimed at social, mental, and physical well-being. And finally, number five, choose and engage your team of champions. My name is Kristina Vanova, and I am on a mission to inspire and promote happiness. Thank you for being with me. Until next time.