5 Ultimate Employee Engagement Ideas & Best Practices

Regardless of the endeavor, whether at work, at home or at play, excellence is only possible with an actively engaged heart. When something captures your heart and your soul, you are driven to success, to complete that project or catch that fish.

The unengaged soul of employees may be the most underutilized resource in business. It’s a limitless resource available to every company, yet few companies take advantage of it.

Companies that engage the hearts and souls of employees seldom need to worry about motivation. Engaged souls motivate themselves. Engaged souls experience the excitement of a challenge, the thrill of competition and the joy of success.

And so, any effective employee engagement idea captures the heart and soul of the employee.

5 Ways to Engage the Souls of Your Employees

Purpose TAP:
Great purpose statements TAP into an employees’ heart, through giving a sense of Transformation, Acceleration and Passion. Some great passion statements include:

• Disney: We create happiness
• Google: Information democratization
• Southwest Airlines: Have Fun—Make a Profit

A purpose statement is a powerful employee engagement idea. What’s your statement?

Dual Missions:
One construction company has a unique way to gain a two-way buy-in from their employees. They offer programs on how to build a personal mission statement. Discussions with each employee bridge personal mission with the company mission, thereby making the company a place where employees can reach both professional and personal goals.

I Believe:
Few employee engagement ideas are more powerful than communicating exactly what senior managers believe in and what they stand for. When one leader called his first employee meeting as the new CEO of a company he opened the meeting by discussing “Twelve Things I Believe In.” His list included a detailed discussion of his belief in fairness, integrity, caring, sharing and earning an honest profit. This leader, in his own words, laid the foundation for a new culture through his powerful, personal message of what he believed in and in turn expected in others.

Core Hours:
Many good companies employ a sensible and flexible approach to helping employees integrate their work and life. All office employees must work the “core hours” of 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. This gives employees the leeway to come in as late as 10:00 a.m. and work until 6:00 p.m., or to come in as early as 6:00 a.m. and work until 3:00 p.m. This rather easy and effective employee engagement idea balances professional and personal lives—and gives the company even more office coverage every day.

Break the Monotony:
Having fun within a hospital setting might be considered an oxymoron, but one in Miami, Florida found a simple, effective cure. On non-traditional occasions such as Oktoberfest or the birthday of a famous poet, the staff opens a small auditorium for what they call a “Monotony Breaker Day.” Snacks, drinks and room decorations symbolize that day’s theme. All employees are encouraged to drop by the room whenever it’s convenient to socialize, relax and break the monotony from the intense pressures of a healthcare environment.

Favorites List:
This is my favorite of all the employee engagement ideas! One week after a new employee begins in a large regional insurance services company, he or she is handed a 40-plus item list and asked to list, for example, a favorite color, ice cream, night-time snack, sports team, movie star, vacation spot, restaurant, etc. This list is given to his or her supervisor with the express purpose to use it to customize a unique “thank-you” gift for great work, service or accomplishment.

Follow these simple, but powerful employee engagement ideas and best practices and watch the motivation, excitement and energy of your team skyrocket!