Four Ways to Get Employees to Engage in Your HR Programs

BY Samantha Campos | October 08, 2022

Today’s workforce is struggling to pay attention. Remote and hybrid work has led to increased communication and decreased connection. Burnout is rampant. Meanwhile, HR departments are juggling multiple priorities: streamlining recruitment and onboarding processes, keeping up with hiring demands, making hybrid-work workable for employees, training managers to be great people leaders, and increasing the impact of organizational initiatives.

Phew! How can employers cut through all this to create a more engaged workforce?

During a thought-leadership spotlight titled, “Four Ways to Get Employees to Engage and Participate in Your HR Programs in 2022,” at From Day One’s San Francisco conference in September, speakers Matt Frank and Matt Dardenne–a/k/a “the Matts”­–presented timely data and practical solutions to increase engagement and connection. Both work for Enboarder, an onboarding platform, which surveyed 2,000 full-time employees globally in a People Insights Report from 2021.

“Collaboration has become harder during the pandemic,” said Dardenne, Enboarder’s senior enterprise relationship manager, “especially for hybrid workers–73% agree that genuine collaboration takes more effort than it did in March of 2020.”

According to the report, 67% of hybrid workers said they felt burned out and overwhelmed. And they’re not alone: 61% of managers receive 21 or more notifications in a day, which can also lead to feeling overwhelmed. “Leaders are feeling this in a major way,” said Dardenne. “Across Slack and all the other nifty tools we have, I receive 20 notifications before I even wake up oftentimes.”

Burnout is an obvious de-motivator. Nearly two-thirds of employees say they haven’t changed their behavior at work because of an HR initiative in the last 12 months. At the same time, 70% say their manager doesn’t frequently encourage them to engage in HR initiatives, and 36% say they haven’t made the most of the learning-and-development programs available at their organization.

Consequently, HR programs are not as impactful as they could be due to poorly timed communication, a lack of connection (especially among hybrid and remote employees), poor engagement across the board, and too much friction to act quickly. To resolve this, the Matts explained the “four pillars of a people-centric journey,” starting with engagement.

No. 1: “How do we get engagement and participation up?” asked Frank, Enboarder’s enterprise customer success manager, who recommended making communication more personable and customized to the specific employee. “Like you’re basically talking to a friend. Maybe including some funny memes. And then don’t be afraid to have some fun with the content that you’re providing your employees.”

Matt Frank of Enboarder joined his colleague Dardenne for the presentation

The second pillar: nudges. “Having bite-sized pieces of information throughout the course of a workflow seems to be more impactful and digestible,” said Frank. Nudges are particularly helpful during onboarding. A few days before an employee’s start date, leaders can send a reminder to the hiring manager to send the new hire a text message, to congratulate and thank them for joining the team. Managers can send a form to a new hire to get to know them a bit more, perhaps asking what their favorite afternoon snack is. “So, on their first day, you could have Pringles or whatever their go-to snack is on their desk waiting for them.”

Ease, or making communications and programs easy to interpret, is a third pillar of the people-activation model. “A lot of employees give up on a learning and development initiative because they don’t understand the ‘why’ behind it,” said Frank. “They just think they’re being forced to do something.” Leaders need to clearly explain the purpose behind the program or initiative.

With myriad communication platforms available, having employees choose their preferred method of contact makes it easier for them to ingest content. Reducing the number of system logins by incorporating a single sign-in authentication also makes the process more streamlined. “A lot of folks will give up on a simple task simply because they can’t log in through the system that you’re trying to have them access,” said Frank.

Connection is the final pillar. “Through our research and study, 82% of employees say they’re more motivated to work on a project or program when they feel closer to the team,” said Frank. “And 84% of employees find it easier to do their best work when they feel close to the team they’re working with.”

So how can employers make connections more effectively?

“Take an audit of your current initiatives,” said Frank. Rethink generic content. Consider revising the way HR initiatives are communicated. “A mentor or buddy program also has a great effect on building that connection across departments or within the same team.”

Samantha Campos is a freelance journalist who’s written for regional publications in Hawaii and California, with forays into medical cannabis and food justice nonprofits. She currently resides in Oakland, Calif.

Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner who sponsored this thought leadership spotlight, Enboarder.

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