Top ways to improve employee engagement in learning programs

Employee engagement is critical for any organization regardless of industry or size. If employees aren’t engaged, they won’t be motivated to produce their best work. In turn, this will have a massive impact on the service your clients and customers receive.

So, how can you improve engagement and ensure employees remain engaged? We’ll explore how you can improve employee engagement at your organization, including the tools you can use to measure employee engagement and expert strategies to improve engagement. 

For a deeper dive, check out our whitepaper, Employee engagement strategies to build successful L&D programs.

What is employee engagement?

Employee engagement measures how invested and committed employees are to their work and the success of your business. When employees are engaged, they’re proactive, enthusiastic, and committed to their role, which helps your business grow and achieve its goals.

Employee engagement is important because it:

• Increases productivity
• Lowers turnover rates
• Reduces absenteeism
• Improves your reputation
• Improves customer service and customer loyalty
• Leads to innovation and problem-solving
• Builds a positive work culture
• Promotes employee wellbeing
• Contributes to success and growth

Whose job is employee engagement?

No single role or department is responsible for ensuring employees are engaged, it’s a shared responsibility across the organization. For example: 

• The senior leadership team must provide all necessary resources and employee engagement tools so employees have the opportunity to engage.
• Managers should work with employees to offer support and guidance where necessary.
• HR should provide support, such as a robust onboarding process, training and development opportunities, and a rewards and recognition program. 
• Employees are also responsible for their engagement, which they can improve by developing a growth mindset.

Leadership's role in improving employee engagement

It’s everyone’s responsibility to contribute to employee engagement. This includes your senior leadership team, who should actively connect with their workforce to ensure engagement.

Leaders must lead by example, displaying the behaviors and mentality they expect from others. When leaders are engaged, employees are more likely to be engaged too. As part of this, leaders should create a supportive and inclusive environment to foster a positive workplace culture.

Regular communication should always be a priority. For instance, discuss goals and objectives with employees, specifying how their work contributes to broader business goals. Leaders should also encourage personalized learning, which not only helps employees achieve their personal goals but also contributes to your organization achieving its goals. It’s a win-win!

Expert strategies to improve employee engagement

There are plenty of ways to improve employee engagement. Below are four ways your business can improve employee engagement.

1. Strong leadership

Having a strong, dependable, and accessible leadership team is critical. When leaders show how much they value their employees’ development and wellbeing, and communicate openly and regularly, it can positively impact engagement.

As part of this, ensure employees feel heard. Inviting feedback and input is one thing, but implementing that feedback is far more likely to increase engagement and ensure employees feel valued.

2. Personalized development at scale

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to learning and development because all employees are at different stages of their careers and have unique goals and interests. Personalized development at scale may sound expensive and time-consuming, but it doesn’t have to be. When employees are encouraged to learn in ways that interest them and align with your business goals, it will keep them engaged and help your business achieve its goals.

There are plenty of ways to give employees learning opportunities, such as: 

• Making training accessible and simple, such as through a learning management system
• Offering regular 1:1s and PDP sessions
• Offering mentorship programs
• Providing regular feedback
• Ensuring employees don’t fear making mistakes
• Providing employees with the time they need to develop their skills and knowledge

3. Rewards and recognition

Rewarding and recognizing employee achievements can be a huge motivator. The majority of rewards don’t even need to be monetary (though this helps). They can be something as simple as a shout-out. Gamification is another excellent option, which offers a fun and competitive edge to learning and can also increase engagement. 

Another fantastic way to recognize employee achievements is by promoting from within. This motivates employees to continue developing because they can see it pays off. Promoting from within is also more cost-effective than going through an expensive and laborious recruitment process.

4. Build an inclusive and positive workplace culture

When employees are happy with their work environment, they’re more likely to engage. To achieve this, focus on ensuring employees feel valued and heard, as well as promoting inclusivity, offering more flexible work arrangements, encouraging a healthy work-life balance, and providing a range of benefits. Wellbeing is also key, so providing employees with tools and resources to manage their mental health, wellbeing, and stress can all help prevent burnout and reduce absenteeism.

Tools to help you measure employee engagement in learning programs

To ensure your engagement strategies are successful, there are several tools you can use to measure engagement, including:

• Analytics and reports, which are simple to produce and give you comprehensive data, particularly if your business utilizes an LMS
• Surveys and questionnaires so employees can provide specific feedback
• Skills and knowledge development and implementation
• Customer feedback
• Assessment scores and completion rates
• Manager feedback

Inspired to boost engagement? Download our whitepaper, Employee engagement strategies to build successful L&D programs, to get started! Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can help with your team’s learning needs.