Employees are the most important part of any organisation. Employees at every level should feel motivated and happy to give their best to their responsibilities. Engaging them helps a company achieve this, which in turn leads to the company’s success.   In our previous article we connected the dots between what engagement is, its importance, some of the broader results it can bring along and provided a wide approach to it. Now, let’s look at few great ideas that can be implemented locally and connect the dots with Wellness this time! Source Employees need something for motivation (Besides money) Consider any sport. Sure, the winners make money. But what drives them is something much bigger than the mere paycheck. It’s the moment when they’re crowned the winner! When they feel that their hard work has been recognised in front of everyone. Your employees deserve and need the same, and more often than not, they themselves will not know this. Help them feel that their contribution is important for the success of your team and give them the feeling of taking the team to success, when your team does well. Unity Consider yourself the team leader and your employees the supporters. Now, in any sport, even though it’s the leader who takes the team to success, it is actually a team effort. Similarly, each member of your team has his own responsibilities. But in the end, they’re all working towards a common goal, i.e., making your business successful. Therefore, it is important to maintain unity in the team and have the team members respect and value each other. A well-planned employee engagement program will help your employees stay motivated and remember that they are proud members of a great team. Wellness is the key! It’s not enough for any sportsman to be in a good physical shape; mental well-being has an equal priority! If not, any healthy person would be a sportsman! Similarly, you need to figure out how your employees are feeling, especially at the workplace. Their overall health plays an important role in how well they perform at work. Consider integrating wellness programs to keep your employees informed about their health and how to maintain it. You can even devise some stress busting programs to relax your employees and make them perform better. They will be at their best when they feel the best!   «Consult with WorkWell and Design your Own Wellness Program»   Ideas that will definitely get your interest and hopefully inspire you Kevin Sheridan, New York Times best-selling Author of Building a Magnetic Culture, has helped some of the world’s largest corporations improve their culture and foster productive engagement. When we asked him what companies should be doing better to improve workplace engagement, he offered us this wisdom: GET YOUR HEALTH AND WELLNESS PROGRAM IN “The bottom line is that anyone who knows about employee engagement is also a firm believer in instituting health and wellness programs. There have been multiple scientific studies proving that health and wellness efforts not only yield higher productivity and engagement in the workplace but will also help reduce turnover as job stress is the #1 reason people quit (along with a lack of work-life balance which is related to wellness as well).”   GIVE YOUR PEOPLE “INSIDE” INFORMATION Want to know a great way to get your team more involved and committed?
 Keep them up to date with “inside” information. These are things like the direction of the company and the challenges that the Leadership Team is facing. Tim Sackett, HR Pro and President at HRU Technical Resources, explains this important part of your employee engagement strategy: “The one true fact in all workplaces is your people want to be in the know, they want to be in the circle of trust. HR and leadership, in general, do a crappy job at this, and it has a huge impact to engagement. Find ways to make this happen and let your people know that it’s “inside” information. Trusting your employees can handle it raises engagement.”   EMPHASIZE WORK-LIFE BALANCE Work-life balance often seems like an impossible struggle. It’s difficult to find that right balance between work and personal life to feel good that both areas are receiving enough attention. Blake McCammon of Blogging4Jobs, a popular blog focused on HR and the workplace, had this to say about work-life balance’s role in employee engagement: “Work-life balance is one of the most important things employers can do to help employees not only stay healthy and fit, but keep them engaged day by day. Provide a work from home scenario and flexible hours where employees with children or adults with hobbies are allowed the freedom to enjoy life to the fullest, but still get their work done.”   CONDUCT AN ANONYMOUS EMPLOYEE SURVEY TO GET HONEST FEEDBACK Use a tool like TINYpulse or SurveyMonkey to create a survey and send it out to your team. Surveys are one of the few ways to actually measure and track engagement, so definitely make this part of your efforts. Ask questions like: How are you feeling? What’s the morale you see around you? Good Idea (what one thing will make the biggest improvement in your 
job, your team or the organization?) Do you have a good working relationship with your manager? Would you rather have a salary increase of < 1.5 % or invest that money on a Wellness Program (try to be specific about it)   FIND OUT YOUR TEAM’S PASSIONS Are they into any sports? Do they have a personal blog? Do they want to travel around around Southeast Asia next summer? Do they play any musical instruments? Know what your team is passionate about. It’ll help you connect with them and show them that you actually care about their interests.   PROMOTE PERKS THAT BOOST MENTAL & PHYSICAL WELLBEING
 JellyVision Interactive Marketing offers these awesome unique perks to their employees: On-site yoga and a free healthy catered lunches every week The ability to work from home whenever necessary or work out an unconventional schedule Unlimited vacation days (with the assumption this privilege won’t be abused) Company refrigerators and cupboards stocked with fruit and healthy 
snacks A yearly Wellness Day featuring free 15-minute back massages for every 
employee and a taste of unusual, healthy juices   «WorkWell would recommend to go beyond that and offer On Site massages on a monthly if not weekly basis. We promise, that the accumulated benefits will simply do the rest!» Main Reference:  www.linkedin.com/in/kevinsheridan1 & www.snacknation.com