Improve the Employee Experience by Getting Teams Engaged
“We’re losing our company culture!”
“How are we supposed to improve employee morale?”
“We need a way to get everyone more engaged!”
Sound like challenges you’re facing right now? You’re not alone. Keeping company culture alive when team members are in different physical locations is a common pain point, but it’s also one that has plenty of solutions.
Now we don’t claim to have all the answers to the difficult problem companies are facing when it comes to company culture, but at LevelEleven we’ve found our own ways of adapting that we’re confident you’ll find useful – and actionable!
Connect and Engage Employees with Small Gestures
First, let’s dispel the misconception that improving the employee experience requires a massive overhaul of the current company culture. There are so many little things you can do as a leader to improve employee morale and reinforce the sense of community that is now missing due to physical separation. One of them is simply to start some conversations – virtually.
Like many companies, LevelEleven has a designated channel in Slack for conversation and community building. We call it “watercooler” and our watercooler community is always pretty active, helping us all feel connected even though we’re remote. But how did we build up that sense of community? One trick we used was to create our own ‘virtual traditions.’
At LevelEleven, everyone knows to expect a #DadJoke on Wednesdays, and looks forward to Fun Fact Fridays. Dad Jokes are self-explanatory (who doesn’t love a good Dad Joke) but our version of Fun Facts involves learning random little factoids about colleagues. ‘Fun Fact Fridays’ are a good way for new hires to get to know their new teammates, but also good for experienced employees: they’ll likely learn things about their colleagues and share experiences that may never have come up even if everyone were in the office.
In a virtual world, you have to seek out connection/conversation. It’s not just going to happen organically as you pass each other in the hallway or sit around the lunch table. That’s where an effective leader steps in: start your own community-building ‘tradition’ that sparks non-work-related conversations without feeling forced.
But don’t stop there – you can also find a way to give individual team members a virtual pat on the back. Teams are having fun with new opportunities for recognition and friendly competitions for prizes like gift cards for take-out or items shipped to their homes via Amazon. These small prizes and shout-outs are a nice substitute for the pats on the back and “well done” praise normally given in the office. Using a solution like LevelEleven’s Coaching to deliver quick kudos is a great way to give a team member a boost of positivity.
Motivation and Team Building With Contests
Recognition from leadership is certainly important, but this is also a great opportunity for some team building to reinforce that sense of community. One of the ways we’re doing that at LevelEleven is through our own internal contests that help motivate people and keep team members connected.
Traditional contests where individuals or groups go head-to-head with one another have always been great motivators. The sense of friendly competition is another way of engaging employees and motivating them whether they’re physically together or not. Especially with team members at home, creating meaningful shared goals helps employees and teams feel connected.
You can use contests with LevelEleven to spin up sales-related contests for call completions, building pipeline, or renewals closed. Alternatively, spin up contests that are geared more toward your customer support and success teams, such as ‘most cases closed’ or ‘most reviews gathered.’
People often compete with teams made up of employees in the same role, or from one department to another. Instead, try joining people from different parts of your organization and grouping employees together with people they wouldn’t normally interact with on a daily basis.
For example, hold a contest for “Salesforce cleanup” that involves both the sales team and the customer support departments since they both use the platform frequently. When an entire team is working toward one purpose together, it really doesn’t matter what role your employees are in – the sense of connection among all fellow coworkers is reinforced.
Foster a Sense of Community and Connection
At the end of the day, all teams are looking for ways to preserve company culture and productive focus after finding themselves in a wildly different professional landscape. Especially when employees aren’t hearing conversations around the office each day, it’s a challenge to keep them engaged.
The reality is most employees don’t want more formal meetings or weekly emails from leadership, they want a more organic connection. The employee experience needs to include a sense of community and connection, even when you can’t be together in person. While you can motivate, engage and coach your team on your own, having a tool that streamlines your efforts means one less thing on your plate and a higher likelihood of success.
Sales Performance Management solutions like LevelEleven offer people-first tools that help managers get their team engaged. You can easily create/track shared objectives, provide consistent and actionable feedback, and celebrate wins – right within Salesforce! The Salesforce-native platform is designed to fit into existing workflows and helps leaders stay intentional about supporting their team members.
Are you ready to save your company culture? Request a demo to learn more about LevelEleven’s gamification and coaching products and how we can help your team level up their engagement and motivation.
