The Little Perks that Boost Employee Engagement

Yesterday, we heard some big thoughts on how some key areas of performance management and engagement are linked in our webcast with David Creelman. But today I wanted to chat about the seemingly little things companies can do to add to the engagement factors.

I heard an interesting radio documentary recently on the idea of music increasing work productivity. They discussed how with manual labor decades ago, there was the creation of worksongs to help motivate workers. Call it an early employee engagement strategy!

Worksongs eventually died out as a practice with the industrial revolution, but during the 50s and 60s manufacturers discovered that productivity increased when music was played. In some studies, a 3-4 % increase in productivity on the line was shown, which for a manufacturing organization, is a significant gain that can have a major impact.

It’s a simple idea that I’m sure we all clearly understand. Happy employees = productive workers. We spend a lot of time on employee engagement strategies, and while there is no doubt these are necessary and valuable, I do wonder if sometimes we miss simple, lower cost activities that will improve employee morale.

This can be as simple as something like providing soda and juice to employees. It’s a lower cost item, but I remember how excited I was at my first “real” job when I learned this was a perk. Being able to go to the kitchen and get a soda never lost its luster even after five years. It’s fairly basic but I liked not having to leave the office, and it was helpful during some late nights. That said, this is definitely a nice to have item, because depending on the state of your organization, it may be more desirable to cut a perk like this than another person from the payroll.

On the flip side, one of my friend’s companies did cut this perk about a year ago as part of an overall cost cutting program, and let me tell you, it didn’t go well. The staff there had been through a lot of changes and cuts, and this move resulted in some very unhappy employees. Adults upset about not having free juice or a soda seems a bit silly, but never ever underestimate the power of the little things on employee morale!
 
Are you going to become an employer of choice on free drinks or music in the workplace? Probably not. Does it help contribute to the overall picture? Absolutely. Just think what may happen if you were to get better elevator music – employees may arrive pumped instead of with an instrumental version of Celine Dion song looping in their head!

What little things do you do for employee engagement? What do you think works and doesn’t work?