Increasing Employee Engagement in 2022

Talent is the number one asset to any company and as such, it is important to keep your talent engaged and happy in their roles within the organisation. With hybrid working becoming commonplace, we look at how Microsoft solutions can keep employees more engaged.  

Focus on Employee Wellbeing

Research shows that companies that focus on helping employees enhance their overall wellbeing, report higher levels of overall employee engagement. Such actions that organisations can take immediately is to encourage employees to take tea breaks during the day or putting time aside for meditation.

A great solution that helps balance work and wellbeing is Microsoft Viva Insights. Viva Insights is a web app that makes recommendations to improve productivity and well-being as well as other data-driven insights. Recently, Viva Insights introduced a curated set of guided meditations and focus music from Headspace to help employees relax their minds before important presentations or clear their heads before a busy day. These mindfulness experiences can help decrease stress levels and improve focus throughout the week. Another nice feature of Viva Insights is “Take a Break” which schedules a 15-minute block of time twice a day to allow employees to disconnect and recharge.

Share Company News and Important Information

With 74% of workers saying how they feel like they are missing out on company news and important information, many business leaders are looking to implement or promote a corporate intranet. A useful platform for this is SharePoint Online, allowing employees to access important information on the go.

Another useful tool for this is Viva Connections, a gateway for employee experience that helps keep everyone in an organisation engaged and informed. It is a personalised experience that appears in the apps and devices your employees use every day such as Microsoft Teams. Viva Connections delivers a unified, personalized feed in which employees can explore news and contribute to the conversation from virtually anywhere. This helps keep employees engaged, bringing together relevant conversations and other resources, shaping culture within an organisation.

Improve Communication

When looking to improve engagement, communication is one of the main contributing factors within an organisation. Communication determines how effectively employees carry out tasks and engage with colleagues. Now with many organisations operating a hybrid working model, having methods in place for effective communication is more important than ever. This is where Microsoft Teams comes in.

Teams makes it quick and easy to communicate with colleagues through direct messaging and group chats. It is a great alternative to using your email as with Teams you can see whether someone is online and if they have seen your message or not. Teams also allows users to react to messages with emojis, pin important messages to the top of a thread and reply to specific messages, all features which encourage maximum engagement. Another nice feature of Teams is Microsoft Loop Components which allows users to edit messages within Teams chats, thus preventing long threads of messages.

Foster Company Culture

Having a shared culture can promote consistency within a business while allowing the organisations to benefit from an open and friendly workplace. Providing a social media platform tailored to meet the needs of the modern business, Microsoft's Yammer can be used to strengthen the company culture. Providing employees with a resource to share common interests and ideas, while providing a platform to recognise a job well done, enabling this forum can build a stronger relationship between an employee and the organisation. It can also add personality to an organisation and make employees more engaged through sharing experiences on it.

To find out more about how your business could benefit from Microsoft’s modern workplace solutions, contact us today.

Conall O'Kane, Practice Manager - Modern Workplace Apr 14, 2022