The Most Impactful Ways to Build and Grow Team Engagement

We know what hurts your team’s engagement, but let’s talk about what builds it!

Building a team and a culture within your business is big. It’s exciting and a bit nerve-wracking, but it’s one of the most important things you do as a business owner.

And while every team and employee is unique in their needs, there are a few common, yet critical ways to engage them!

This is how you build and grow your team engagement:

Give Them Their Flowers

We aren’t talking about literal flowers, we’re talking about good, old-fashioned recognition!

Showing thanks or gratitude to your employees is about value, specifically making them feel valued and appreciated. It can be easy to forget the little things during high-stress periods, whether in or outside of work, but it’s important to build appreciation and recognition into your culture, so that even when those moments happen your team is still showing up for each other, and for you, keeping everyone accountable for a positive and collaborative work environment.

For the smaller, everyday moments, a simple thank you or championing a key moment can be the positive reminder that helps them feel seen, heard, and a valuable part of the team and business.

For larger moments, like certain project completions or picking up the slack, the power of “surprise and delight” can go far. A “coffee on me”, a small personalized gift, or even a half-day to full-day off (e.g. “let’s take Friday off this week, we’ve earned it!” or “it’s so nice out, let’s take the afternoon off to get outside”) can help your team additionally feel the sense of accomplishment from task completion.

Security and Stability

An engaged team is a productive, collaborative, and communicative team, and one of the best ways you have people invest is when you invest in them first.

Everyone benefits from security and stability, regardless of the area of life it comes from. Especially in economic times like these, financial stability and job security are major focuses. When people can breathe easily and feel supported/cared for through their employment, they’re less likely to constantly be looking for a backup plan, they feel more inclined to establish trust with the people they work with, and begin to work on long-term plans, whether work, life or both. 

So how do you make your employees feel stable and secure in your business? You do that through the following ways:

• Salary and Compensation - Ask yourself:

• Is this a livable wage?

• What is the current market rate for this position? Does the rate align with that?

• Benefits - Ask yourself:

• Does what I offer for health benefits match the needs of usage?

• What parts of the benefits package(s) feel restrictive/create barriers?

When we take care of our people and empower them to take care of themselves, they, once again, feel valued and a part of the decision-making. Every decision is intentional, and it can certainly feel that way from either standpoint, but ultimately, team members are more likely to truly invest in your dream, in your purpose, when they feel that equal give and take.

Get The 411

How do you know what your team needs to feel secure, productive, and engaged in your business?

Ask them!

While there are some standard ways of engagement, you can’t say you know for certain until you ask. You can do this in a couple of key ways.

Firstly, you can include routine questions in your 1:1s centred around your team’s general contentment, any support they may need, and even directly ask if there are additional supports that they would benefit from (whether within the workplace or as a “perk”/benefit).

Now, if you meet with your team members weekly, asking every meeting could feel overkill, so it’s important to balance your check-ins, setting yourself reminders to ask monthly in your 1:1s.

The second way you can gather your team’s thoughts, feelings, and opinions is to conduct a quarterly employee wellness survey. With every new quarter, an employee survey can help you understand the specifics of what you want to know (within reason as an employer) because you create the survey, meaning if you have specific areas of concern or an inkling of a misalignment of needs, you can include that in your survey. 

The more touchpoints of expression between your team and leadership (that’s you), the more comfortable they will feel expressing their needs and building trust amongst each other, and as a business.

So, now that you know how to build and grow engagement within your business, it’s time to put it into action!

And if you’re looking for help and guidance regarding policies, employee surveys, and all things people operations, book an Ask a People Ops Specialist Session!

Remember, people are your business, so it’s important to invest in them!