With change in business dynamics, it is essential to strategize employee –engagement activities. More important is to execute out-of- box thinking initiatives to ensure quality work and employee preservation for long run. It is essential to keep employees engaged as they can value add to top-line growth and bottom-line performance in any company.

Let’s identify ways in which we can foster employee-engagement naturally:

Crib Sessions 

One of the upfront ways to ask for employee engagement is to organize crib sessions at the office. It is daring, bold and fun method. Mrigank Tripathi , Founder and CEO of  Qustn Technologies reveals at Delhi HR Conclave 2016 about exciting crib sessions held at his office. He says, “In our company, we have regular crib sessions, where each person has to crib mandatorily. You are not given any choice or option in the session, you are required to crib. And you may crib about anything like- there is no food in the pantry or there is no water in the bathroom or floor is dirty. Anything you can say but you will have to say. So our plan is to resolve all the issues by the end of the crib sessions meetings. We feel these are very empowering sessions and it brings us to closer to the employees and vice-versa.”

Book Club 

Book club provides each employee a valuable opportunity to interact, to meet and connect with other and also provides them a liberal platform to share their perspectives on different set of topics. One of the most enriching ways to organize employee- engagement is by founding a book club within the organization.  Upholding the idea, Appster, an app development firm launched a book club recently with great enthusiasm. 

Besides aiding employee development, book club allows employees to engage with one another outside their daily roles. It successfully adds value beyond learning new business concepts “Book club provides each employee an opportunity to learn new concepts from those outside of our company, but also from within. Each day we interact tactically with our colleagues, but it’s not very often that we get to share ideas outside of normal business context. Reading an interesting book will help to spur conversations and will allow us to see our fellow employees in a different light,” says Dr. Suruchi Mittar, Director-Learning and Development, Appster.  

Also, to enhance professional growth employees can select books based on themes relevant to current events within the company. As a part of employee –engagement scheme, it helps in attracting, retaining, and developing top talent of the company. The club will not just help in sharing unique ideas but can help in imbibing them at workplace as well. Employees can discuss about leadership roles, management strategies and other such relevant topics. This forum will allow an open exchange of ideas within colleagues and new conversations can act as catalyst bringing in change and breaking symbolic walls across department and staff. Needless, to say it is loads of fun too!

Family Engagement 

Sameer Khanna, Vice-President and Head, HR at Ericsson elucidates at Delhi HR Conclave importance of reaching out to families of employees as crucial step for achieving effective employee-engagement. “In our company if somebody gets promoted, we send a kit at their residence. The promoted employee is unaware about his promotion till the time kit reaches his home and he gets first- hand information from his family members. The happiness that they get when they see their families rejoicing their promotion is wonderful. Also, after child birth, we send maternity kit at employees home. We also invite employees kids over to the office to teach them science. We want families to know what Ericsson is doing so that they stay connected with us.”

So, if you really wish to know whether your employees are happy or how happy they are use these out of the box ideas to better connect to them. The main aim of employee –engagement tool is to ensure employee remains engaged with the company in whatever way possible and these activities definitely safeguard these interests.