Six Tech Tips for Increasing Employee Engagement

Manulife Employee Experience Vice President Amy MacGregor offers six employee engagement strategies for human resources (HR) to practice in the current work climate, reports Human Resources Director Canada . She explains that HR professionals need easy and efficient ways to communicate with employees fast, which makes mobile solutions critical. Mobile interfaces let HR teams and workers manage aspects that are relevant to their jobs in the moment. Also vital is peer-to-peer recognition for outstanding performance, with MacGregor noting that leaders and employees can earn points by participating in the Podium global recognition program. A third tip is collaboration and co-creation through tools like Mural, which teams can use it to make diagrams popular in design thinking and agile methodologies, and enable more effective meetings and workshops. Ongoing and regular feedback also is being normalized for assessing employee engagement, and MacGregor adds that HR teams can harness data to support decision-making related to employee issues and understand the current state of the workforce. Her sixth and final suggestion is to find ways for employees to maintain connections with their work community while working from home. Manulife's solution includes technology like Microsoft Teams and hosted events like virtual coffee chats, regular "ask me anythings" with senior leadership teams, happy hours, fitness challenges, and motivational speakers.