Improve Employee Engagement – Using Latest Technology

Importance of Employee Engagement: Organizations today focus more on employees than was done before. In the past, employees were treated as personnel. Today, the focus is on human resources management and some organizations refer to employees as human capital. It is employees who drive the vision of the organization and ensure its goals are met. Without motivated employees who perform at their best, organizations cannot hope to succeed.

This is the reason why organizations focus on employee engagement. The process of motivating an employee to deliver his/her best results by creating an emotional connection between employees and the organization is called employee engagement. Organizations across the world are today using various techniques to engage with employees to get the best out of them. Technology can help in doing this in an effective way.

Technology and Employee Engagement

Technology is used in every field of operations to increase efficiency. Engagement with employees can be done in an effective way by using technology. There are many tricks that can be used by organizations to deploy technology for employee engagement. The following are a few of them.

1) Use Personal Tools for Work

Most offices provide computers or laptops for employees to do their work. Using their personal tools for work can be an effective way of engaging with employees. People spend a lot of time using their mobile phones. Allowing employees to use apps for work is a good way of engaging with employees. This makes them happy as they can use their personal devices and at the same time work happens in a smooth way.

Apps can be offered by the company that allows employees to schedule work, get copies of pay slips, request for leave, and do other official work. This is convenient as they can do it on their own mobile phone/tablet. It saves a lot of time, as otherwise, employees have to visit the HR/accounts department to get the information they want.

2) Collaborative Working

One of the best ways to get employee engagement going is through collaborative working. Here, technology can be used effectively by employees to work together. This can help in getting things done online allowing employees to work virtually. One of the modern trends is virtual work, where employees can work from home. This allows them to save time on commuting. They also feel relaxed to work at home and can spend more time with their families.

The use of file sharing shared forums, and share whiteboards can be used to communicate with other team members. This ensures collaborative work in the same way as though employees were sitting together in an office. Various project management tools can be used to get work done effectively from anywhere. This kind of environment motivates employees and is a great way of engaging with them.

3) Performance Management, Rewards, and Recognition

An organization expects results from employees, who in turn expect recognition and rewards for good work done. Technology can help in making performance monitoring and management transparent and effective. Online tools can help in tracking the work of employees and can help the management measure the performance of employees. This can be made known to employees who will then be motivated to work harder to improve their performance metrics.

Employees who achieve targets or deliver exceptional work can be rewarded. It need not be in the form of money; even appreciation is a reward that can motivate employees. An app can be used to let employees know who among them has done the best. Such public appreciation delivered through technology makes the employee who gets the recognition happy. It motivates others to work equally well.

Organizations can use technology to create a transparent reward system, where employees can be awarded points for good work done. Every month, the best performer can get special recognition/rewards. Once employees accumulate certain points, they can be given the option of cashing it in for prizes. All this can be managed online using an app. This is one of the best ways to improve employee engagement.

4) Personal Development Plan

Every employee wants to grow in his/her career. Helping employees to plan for their personal development is a great way of engaging with them. Technology tools can be used to help employees create personal development plans. This can include training, which can be delivered to employees through mobile learning. This is yet another way of using technology for the engagement of employees.

When employees can learn new skills and upgrade their skills on their mobile phone, it works as a great engagement tool. They need not spend time attending training. They can take up mobile learning as a way to improve their skills and achieve their personal development plans. This is a great way of motivating employees. These kinds of measures will help to create a strong emotional connection between the employee and the organization. This is ultimately the aim of management who want to ensure employee engagement in the best possible way.

Technology can thus be used in an effective way to ensure employee engagement and get the best results.

Author Bio: The article has been written by Marilou Alcaide, Content Coordinator at Ezzely an employee engagement app.