Creating a Productive Employee Engagement Action Plan with 5 Tips

Many managers rarely act on the results of an employee engagement survey. There are several reasons as to why this may be the case. It may be unclear who is responsible for it and how exactly management can act upon it. Unfortunately, these things often result in nothing happening. In these cases, employee engagement may stagnate or even decline in the worst scenario.

Conducting a survey is meaningless if you don’t act on its results. Here’s where an employee engagement action plan can help. This article explains what action planning for employee engagement entails, its benefits, and how to create a productive action plan.

What Is an Employee Engagement Action Plan?

An action plan is a term that encompasses different things in different organizations. It ranges from a significant undertaking that can influence an entire business to something on a smaller scale, like managers scheduling personal meetings with their team members.

Whether it’s a small and specific change or a large one, an action plan involves something the organization determined based on effective employee feedback, like surveys, that it must prioritize and improve to solve an issue or determine the correct course of action to address it.

Employee action plans are the perfect tool for companies that want to make a substantial change regarding the perception of employee engagement.

What Are the Benefits of Employee Engagement Action Plan?

There isn’t much doubt that higher employee engagement levels are good for businesses, as companies with many engaged employees often enjoy much better revenue. Regardless, it isn’t just monetary gains. It can also influence the workplace culture. Here are some benefits that well-crafted action planning for employee engagement can bring:

Better Productivity

Engaged employees work more earnestly than their counterparts as they feel a personal responsibility to get the ball rolling. Having a highly productive team is also an excellent way to encourage employee innovation. Workers that aren’t motivated at all don’t tend to do more than what the company asks of them and may even look for other career opportunities.

Lower Turnover

Employees engaged and satisfied with their workplace stay longer in it, resulting in lower turnover rates. This advantage can lead an organization to higher places as it allows it to perform better in an ever-growing competitive market.

Better Work-life Balance

Workers that remain interested in their work and company tend to have an outstanding work-life balance. Employees often feel the need to work hard and use their time wisely, while employers feel content about having diligent workers. You can see it as a beneficial relationship between employees and employers.

Increased Revenue

Improving employee engagement can have financial benefits for a company. A workforce that’s invested in their organization performs its tasks more effectively, helping its business register improved revenue growth.

Creating a Productive Employee Engagement Action Plan

An efficient approach is a key to achieving the optimal results, regardless of what the company is trying to accomplish with its employee action plans. Let’s look at the process and five tips you can employ to create a productive employee engagement action plan.

1. Start with Employee Engagement Survey Results

If you want to create an employee action plan, you must first understand what works and what doesn’t when it comes to your employees. Dig into your employee engagement survey results and discover the strengths and weaknesses your organization and its employees have and figure out the areas in which you can improve them.

Team leaders and managers should review these results with their teams. Don’t worry if the results show a low engagement level. After all, the goal of the survey is to help the company do better. Focus on the employee feedback you received and pay attention to patterns in the results. Try and use this survey as a guide to move forward.

2. Focus Your Efforts

Once you finish analyzing the survey results, the next step is to choose your focus areas. Review the survey data and begin listing matters your team should explore further. From them, your team can start preparing an effective employee action plan.

Begin with two or three topics and prioritize them based on how much impact they can have and the effort they require to make a noticeable change. At first, looking for results that you can improve with simple changes can be ideal, but figuring out the parts that may significantly foster employee engagement is essential.

Create focus groups and assign them to each vital topic you and your team identified. These groups work together to identify possible challenges in these issues and brainstorm solutions. Survey questions can only help a little, but bringing your team together can help you focus your efforts more effectively.

3. Create the Action Plan

Now that you identified the parts that require improvement, you can begin creating the employee engagement action plan. It’s crucial to hold team members accountable if you want to see a long-term impact on engagement levels.

If your team doesn’t have clear commitment and accountability, their motivation may vanish over time along with their efforts. They may also shift their focus onto other matters throughout the year. Try to document your plan by clearly outlining its steps and who is responsible for it, among other things.

4. Measure Your Results

With the plan put into motion, it’s time to gauge its success. Instead of waiting for the following engagement survey, you can send out a short pulse survey a few months after implementing changes. This way, you can measure your accomplishments and create a subsequent employee action plan to continue your progress.

5. Communicate Your Plan

Regular communication is an essential part of creating an effective engagement action plan. Whether the goal is short and straightforward or long and complex, it’s good to share survey results and the action plan with employees.

For example, a simple action plan might entail acknowledging each team member more. A significantly larger one might involve placing a bulk office furniture order to outfit your employees with ergonomic office chairs and office standing desks to improve their well-being.

Improving employee engagement through an action plan can be a long, iterative process. Many issues may arise as you create one, but your company can also enjoy numerous benefits from successfully implementing an employee engagement action plan. Keep your goals realistic and manageable, and stay in front of rising problems to create excellent employee action plans!