Improving employee engagement levels is essential for any organisation. Lack of engagement kills productivity, increases labour turnover and has a negative effect on every aspect of office life.
Wouldn’t it be great if your employees were actually engaged in their work instead of watching the clock and waiting to get to the end of the day?
And the problem is a big one:
According to Gallup’s ‘State of the Global Workplace’ study in 2017, just 15% of employees are engaged at work.
This suggests a lack of employee engagement is a serious issue for companies the world over.
Fortunately, there are countless ways to boost employee engagement. One of the simplest solutions is to introduce more interactive technology to the workplace.
Here are a few of the ways that innovative interactive technology can dramatically boost your employee engagement levels.
Engage remote workers
Flexible work is becoming increasingly popular. Not only does it give your employees more freedom, but it also has benefits for businesses like helping to save money on equipment and office space.
In fact:
By 2020, 50% of the UK workforce will be working remotely.
But how should you improve collaboration and build strong teams when you have employees working remotely?
Modern technology makes it easy.
For example, you could introduce high-definition interactive screens to enable face-to-face communication with people anywhere in the world. Now, wherever your employees are based, you can communicate with them as though they are in the office.
There are also many cloud-based project management tools like Asana, Basecamp and Trello, which you can use to help coordinate remote teams.
Boost collaboration
More collaboration means more engagement. It’s a simple enough equation, but it’s at the heart of engaging your employees.
If collaboration is lacking in your workplace, tech can come to the rescue.
For example, you can use interactive displays to provide a central focus for your team where people can connect and share their ideas and feedback, boosting employee communication.
You could also enhance collaboration by using simple group chat tools like Slack, which takes conversations out of email and put them in one central hub. And platforms like Yammer provide a more social way to interact in a business setting.
Revamp your meetings with tech
Meetings can be dull affairs. Do you feel like your employees are getting as much out of your meetings as they should be? Do they even enjoy taking part?
Interactive technology can have a huge impact on your meetings and help to boost employee communication.
By introducing high-quality interactive displays, you can improve presentations, display HD videos and introduce graphics – all of which help to get the attention of participants.
Modern interactive technology also allows displays to be paired up with individual devices like phones and tablets, allowing for all sorts of interactive experiences like real-time polls.
Enable learning on the go
Engaged employees are employees who are constantly learning. They may need training to complete their tasks, but they also want to invest in their own futures.
But while learning is an essential way to increase engagement, the way you go about providing that learning will have a big impact on how successful it is.
Mobile learning is one option.
By allowing your employees to carry out their training via online learning platforms (perhaps in addition to in-person learning) they can take their learning with them wherever they go.
Your employees want to be able to access training wherever they are and whenever it suits them, which works better with their flexible lifestyles.
Mobile learning is the way to give them what they want and get them more engaged in the learning process.
Allow the use of personal devices
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is becoming increasingly popular, and there are some important benefits in allowing this in the workplace.
The popularity of BYOD essentially comes down to letting people work in the way that suits them best. It can make work more fun, helping your employees get more enjoyment from their tasks by doing them in the way they want to – inevitably getting them more engaged.
So, let your employees use their own smartphones and tablets, give them more autonomy and get them more engaged in their tasks.
Boost engagement with interactive technology
Engaging your employees successfully is all about recognising how your employees perform at their best and facilitating this.
Technology can have an important impact on increasing engagement, and by getting your employees more emotionally invested in their work, you will see the results in a happier workforce and greater productivity.
About the author
Natalie Harris-Briggs is the VP of Marketing at Avocor. She is an expert in the technology & audio industry with over 20 years’ experience working in sales and marketing for some of the world’s biggest brands. She has a passion for helping companies grow and introducing new technologies on a global scale.
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