The Future of Employee Engagement: Exploring Emerging Trends and Technologies

In today's fast-paced corporate environment, employee engagement is essential for achieving organizational success and ensuring a competitive advantage. Employee engagement is not a new organizational approach—new trends get things moving every few years. There has been an emphasis on employee engagement during the past few years because of changes in the workplace.

The days of thinking about technologies and automated techniques to boost employee engagement are long gone. Companies are increasingly looking for new, creative methods to integrate technology with employee satisfaction and the employee experience as 51 percent of employees are disengaged in the workplace.

Recent years have seen a significant transformation in HR functions, mainly as a result of the advent of new technology.HR departments must use technology to streamline procedures and offer a more engaging employee experience across the board, from recruiting to employee engagement and performance management.

Every organization aspires to have a highly engaged workforce that increases value and revenue for the company. HR departments continuously try and develop their employee engagement approach to achieve this. These strategies, which vary from accepting flexible work arrangements to providing rigorous development programs, help create a workplace culture that keeps workers engaged and productive.

Let us walk you through some emerging trends and technologies HR managers must implement for employee engagement. Before we get into the details—let's look at how technology enhances employee engagement.

Why technology is essential for fostering employee engagement

While businesses must analyze and invest in technology, new developments often take some time due to the risks and ongoing improvements they entail. To retain staff engagement, integrating the most recent technology offers a number of advantages.

Business owners have acknowledged the influence of technology on employee engagement as the corporate sector moves to harness technology to get things done.

The first benefit of employee engagement technology is that it enables workers to cope and find solace in one another. Technology has taken the lead in accomplishing things today. 

Technology for employee engagement also facilitates work and lessens the load of routine activities in a business. Big data-capable technology enables managers and staff to make wise business choices more quickly—freeing up their time and energy for other vital tasks.

Software that gathers more thorough and accurate employee input on their supervisors, colleagues, and working conditions will assist employers in planning and selecting specific activities that will improve inter-office communication and performance management.

Employee engagement relates to how committed and enthusiastic people are to their work in an organization. Your organization's performance as a whole is influenced by how your employees feel about their roles and responsibilities. Also, there will be a high degree of productivity, work satisfaction, and cooperation.

8 emerging trends and technologies for employee engagement

Investing in technology to increase employee engagement benefits both the organization and the worker. Employees will see businesses as ones that value them as humans rather than just a group of workers to complete tasks by making an effort to engage them using various approaches on a regular basis.

Employees are more loyal to their employers—improving the brand's reputation and image among consumers and potential employees. 

Here are some new trends and technologies in employee engagement that you must consider implementing in your company. 

1. Streamlining employee scheduling

To streamline employee scheduling, you need to use scheduling software, a cloud-based or local computer program or application that automates employee scheduling procedures, including work schedule management, employee communication, and time tracking.

By using a scheduling software, you will be able to quickly create, amend, and share your schedules, as well as manage requests and send messages. Additionally, it guarantees that timesheets are automatically filled up and that your retail personnel clocks in and out—the entire process is centralized.

While a lot of scheduling software is available, Agendrix software enables you to schedule retail employees in minutes, save time, control costs, and improve team communication in your retail stores.It will be easy to keep track of employee requests, and reduce labor costs. The time managers must spend on arranging work will be considerably reduced by using this scheduling software.

The retail employee scheduling software also includes a time clock, payroll function, geo-tracking to prevent buddy punching, and other features to simplify scheduling.

Using scheduling software has benefits that include:

2. Using online collaboration tools

One of the essential components of a successful business is collaboration. This kind of departmental communication helps keep staff members interested and connected. Numerous possibilities are available with collaboration technologies, from instant messaging and video conferencing to project and communication management.   

Collaboration tools enable team members to: 

3. Having a tool for employee recognition

One of the finest strategies for increasing employee engagement continues to be recognizing their efforts. Leaders must use employee recognition tools to make monitoring simpler and even more enjoyable for everyone, even while it is simple to give employees the recognition and acknowledgment they deserve for their efforts.

With the help of these advances, managers will be able to immediately highlight their staff's accomplishments, and anybody will share their gratitude and support by sending virtual cards, appreciation and praises. Employee engagement and motivation will be greatly increased by using a platform for employee appreciation that integrates with gamification.

4. Employing performance management tools

Establishing an inspiring workplace culture and staying competitive is made easier with the help of performance management. As per a survey, 95% of HR professionals are dissatisfied with their existing performance management techniques. Using performance management tools in this situation will keep your staff members motivated and interested. 

Goal-setting, feedback, incentives, and performance evaluation are all crucial HR processes that are covered by performance management systems. This helps HR managers establish precise performance standards so that workers know what to anticipate from their jobs. 

With the help of these tools, the business will more effectively monitor its development and measure individual and collective success.

5. Leveraging onboarding experience tools

Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools improve the experience of onboarding new employees into an organization. Candidates' decisions to join organizations are influenced by the shift from a process-driven to an automated, experience-driven approach to recruiting. Conversational AI and ML systems, such as chatbots, offer direct help and answer their questions about duties, work hours, compensation, location, and other HR rules. 

The hiring supervisors are able to evaluate a candidate's emotional, cognitive, and other personality attributes by using facial expressions and speech recognition software. Additionally, it assists potential workers in finding a cultural match. The automatic background checks that are ML-driven ensure that the right individuals are placed in the right jobs within the company.

6. Making use of cloud computing technology

Employers must consider introducing cloud computing technology into the workforce if they are not comfortable using social media platforms for communication owing to security threats or if building a communication platform from scratch is too expensive.

Users will store, send, transport, and access information and applications using devices that are linked to the internet, thanks to cloud computing technologies. Businesses and their employees will have access to powerful and influential data anytime, anywhere, using the internet to store and retrieve data rather than a hard disc. It enables businesses to retain technological parity without incurring high costs for the acquisition and upkeep of hardware and software.

7. Implementing a workforce-centric culture

The well-being of a company's workforce is more important than anything else. Consequently, the current environment requires the business to create a harmonious and employee-centric culture.

It is a culture where you need to establish a welcoming workplace where you pay attention to and appreciate the requirements of your employees. When you put them first, your staff members will be content and more receptive to client expectations. A culture of respect and care is also developed, lowering the likelihood that your employees will leave the company in search of a better opportunity.

8. Enhancing holistic well-being 

Employee health status directly influences work behavior, attendance and on-the-job performance. High-performance companies clearly understand the human-capital-driven health and work behavior equation. That’s why most high-performing companies regularly measure health status as a viable component of employee engagement.

HR executives are trying to increase employee engagement by promoting holistic well-being, which has emerged as a critical concern. This strategy goes above and beyond conventional wellness initiatives by supporting workers' physical, mental, emotional, and financial well-being. 

Key components of comprehensive well-being programs include:

I. Providing mental health support—Employee assistance programs (EAPs), mental health first aid instruction, and stress management seminars are just a few examples of the resources and mental health promotion initiatives that assist staff members in managing stress and preserving general well-being.

II. Promoting financial well-being programs—The level of involvement and productivity among employees is significantly impacted by financial strain. Engagement and general well-being are increased by providing employees with information and tools that enable them to manage their finances and make future plans.

III. Pushing work-life balance—The ability to maintain a good work-life balance is essential for job satisfaction and must be given to employees via flexible work arrangements, including remote work, reduced workweeks, and flexible hours.

Emerging employee engagement trends to look out for

Employers must explore emerging trends and technologies—use their benefits to focus more on employee engagement, and recruit and keep top talent as the battle for talent heats up to achieve optimal productivity. 

Organizations will have a unique chance to stand out as employers of choice by implementing the above trends, cultivating a supportive and inclusive culture, delivering significant growth possibilities, and enabling a frictionless onboarding experience.