Before we dive into what are employee engagement activities, have you heard about Core Value Index (CVI)?
Essentially, the Core Values Index (CVI) identifies four innate drives that shape our behaviors and motivations. To be specific, CVI notes our innate, unchanging core values rather than just our behaviors or traits that keep evolving over time.
In today’s dynamic landscape of modern business, understanding these core values that drive individuals is key to unlocking the full potential of employee engagement.
What is the core value index?
The Core Values Index (CVI) identifies four innate drives that shape our behaviors and motivations:
#1 The Drive to Get Things Done
This core value is all about action and accomplishment, the need to achieve tangible results and make a meaningful impact.
- Catalytic Value: Efficiency, Effectiveness, and Intrapreneurship
#2 The Drive to Build Connections
Forging meaningful connections with others and the world around us is essential for fostering collaboration, teamwork, and a sense of belonging.
- Catalytic Value: Harmony: Collaboration and Communication
#3 The Drive to Gain Insight
Seeking knowledge, understanding, and clarity drives us to explore, learn, and grow intellectually.
- Catalytic Value: Insight and Inclusiveness
#4 The Drive to Enlarge Capability
Continuously expanding our skills, capabilities, and know-how empowers us to tackle new challenges and achieve greater success.
- Catalytic Value: Innovation and Adaptability
Only by tapping into these innate drives and aligning our initiatives with the CVI, we can create employee engagement activities where individuals feel fulfilled, motivated, and inspired to contribute their best.
Let’s delve into the employee engagement strategies that resonate with each core value, igniting passion and productivity across the organization.
Employee Engagement: Strategies Rooted in Core Values
Engaged employees are not only happier and more fulfilled in their roles, but they also contribute to higher productivity, better customer satisfaction, and increased profitability.
So, let’s explore a variety of creative strategies and activities that you can implement to boost employee engagement and foster a thriving workplace culture.
Core Value #1: Activities for Action and Accomplishment
1. Sprint Challenges: Fueling Efficiency and Effectiveness
Agile methodologies are a natural fit for employees driven by the need to get things done.
By breaking projects into smaller, manageable tasks and embracing iterative processes, teams can achieve results quickly and efficiently.
According to a study by McKinsey, companies using Agile methodologies experience 20-30% higher productivity.
For instance, At Croton Solutions Inc., teams participate in regular sprint challenges to develop a new feature for a client’s software platform.
Despite tight deadlines, the teams collaborate effectively and almost always the solutions exceed client expectations.
Similarly, you can implement sprint challenges where teams compete to accomplish specific tasks or projects within a short timeframe.
Each sprint challenge carefully planned with clear objectives and deadlines would demand individuals to leverage their skills and resources to achieve the desired outcomes.
2. Recognition Wall: Celebrating Achievements
According to a survey by Glassdoor, 53% of employees said they would stay longer at their company if they felt more appreciation from their boss.
Therefore, implement a formal employee recognition program that acknowledges and celebrates employees’ contributions and achievements.
For example, a “Employee of the Month” award with a certificate, gift card, or other rewards can motivate employees and boost morale.
Employees and employers can write notes of appreciation or recognition for their colleagues’ contributions and post them on the wall.
This fosters a culture of gratitude and reinforces positive behaviors.
Just imagine a wall filled with heartfelt notes praising team members for their hard work and dedication.
It even sounds fulfilling!
3. Idea Jam Sessions: Cultivating Innovation and Impact
Encouraging idea jam sessions where employees brainstorm and pitch innovative ideas to address business challenges or improve processes.
In this digital age, brainstorming sessions are no longer bound by physical barriers. Everyone, working from anywhere, can brainstorm and contribute their ideas.
These sessions provide a medium for employees to share their ideas, collaborate with colleagues, and receive feedback.
Idea management software can facilitate the process and capture valuable insights.
According to a study by PwC, companies that actively involve employees in innovation see a 26% higher success rate for their innovation projects.
Related Resource: Free Ebook | Roadmap for Innovation | Ideation to Implementation
Core Value #2: Activities for Building Collaboration and Belonging
1. Cross-functional collaboration
Cross-functional collaboration is one of the pivotal employee engagement activities as it cultivates a culture of shared purpose, where diverse talents converge to tackle challenges, fostering innovation, camaraderie, and a profound sense of collective achievement.
When you think about the big picture, everything is interconnected.
Any task, such as brainstorming sessions, innovation programs, intrapreneurial projects, and training, bring people closer together. One isn’t possible without the other.
You just have to recognize the potential of cross-functional collaboration and introduce a medium to support it.
Idea and Innovation Management Platforms such as Idea Assist and IP Assist provide a medium to run team building projects, challenges, regular open communication, or brainstorming sessions.
This brings together representatives from various departments to discuss ideas, share insights, and solve problems collaboratively.
2. Team-Building Events
Team-building activities are a fun and effective way to strengthen relationships among employees and improve collaboration.
For example, organizing a scavenger hunt around the office or an outdoor adventure can encourage teamwork and problem-solving skills. According to a Gallup poll, companies with engaged teams experience 21% higher profitability.
Implementing a buddy system where new hires are paired with experienced employees to provide guidance and support is one the team-building employee engagement activities.
Buddies offer assistance with onboarding, answer questions, and serve as a friendly face in the workplace. This fosters a sense of belonging and helps new employees integrate into the company culture more quickly.
Such employee engagement activities encourage teamwork, communication, and camaraderie among team members.
They provide a break from work routines and create lasting memories.
3. Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)
ERGs are employee-led communities that provide support, networking, and advocacy for underrepresented groups within organizations.
These groups provide a sense of belonging, support, and empowerment for employees from underrepresented groups, promoting diversity, inclusion, and cultural awareness within the organization.
For example, at LinkedIn, they have the “Women in Tech” ERG, which organizes networking events, mentoring programs, and skill-building workshops to support female employees in the tech industry.
Companies with active ERGs report a 30% increase in employee engagement and a 40% increase in retention, according to research by Mercer.
Core Value #3: Activities for Insight and Understanding
1. Hosting Innovation Challenges
There’s an innate need inside us all to seek knowledge and clarity about all things. Employee engagement activities must keep this intrinsic value as a core.
For example, when employees are clear about the following, they are more active in their innovation efforts:
- who they are serving,
- what they are working towards,
- what problems they are solving,
- what is their benefit in the bigger picture
So, you can start by launching innovation challenges in your team or organization as a whole to quickly unlock this collective innovation opportunity.
You can start by a simple challenge to kickstart the innovation journey, for example, how to make our office space more lively and welcoming? And, then invite creative ideas.
Or, you can go bigger.
Take Tesla, for instance. With its innovative approach to product development, Tesla uses modern innovation software to capture ideas from its global workforce around the clock.
By launching challenges focused on key areas like battery technology or autonomous driving, Tesla directs its employees’ creativity toward solving specific problems.
The flexibility of the software allows teams to collaborate seamlessly, regardless of their location, resulting in groundbreaking innovations that propel the company forward.
Such challenges encourage employees to think outside the box, collaborate across departments, and apply their knowledge and expertise to real-world problems. Idea management software can facilitate the process and capture valuable insights.
2. Learning Sessions
Here’s another example of employee engagement activities related to cultivating insights–Hosting learning sessions.
Sessions where employees gather to explore topics related to their industry, personal development, or company initiatives.
These sessions provide a platform for employees to share knowledge, insights, and best practices. Whether led by internal experts or external speakers, they stimulate intellectual curiosity and foster a culture of continuous learning.
Of course, you can make this interaction digital as well since the workplaces globally have gone hybrid.
According to a survey by LinkedIn, 87% of employees say that learning and development opportunities are important to them in a job.
3. Mentorship Programs
Implement mentorship programs where experienced employees provide guidance and support to less experienced colleagues.
A study by Gallup found that employees who have a mentor are twice as likely to be engaged at work.
Mentorship programs pair seasoned employees (mentors) with less experienced colleagues (mentees) to facilitate professional growth and development. Mentors offer valuable insights, advice, and perspective based on their own experiences, helping mentees navigate challenges, set goals, and advance their careers within the organization.
Core Value #4: Innovation is the Premise For Expansion
Idea Management is the only employee engagement activity and innovation strategy that you must focus on to cater to the fourth core value of any individual.
Since every individual wants to grow and expand their capabilities, and has the power to innovate, you must provide a medium and adopt a strategy.
People are often driven by their desire to innovate, work on amazing projects, and practice autonomy over their work.
Therefore, even if you provide the best salary structure and gamify the engagement process, you’ll run into unhappy faces more often than you realize.
So, here’s where you can begin. Discard the idea of titles and emphasize the free flow of ideas from each individual equally.
Innovators don’t really have a specific degree or title. Anyone, literally, anyone in your organization can be the person to come up with an invention–big and small. And you need to capture it!
People drive business innovation and success.
Therefore, innovation starts with ideas from individuals with diverse backgrounds and perspectives and becomes a way to diversify revenue streams for a company.
This is where you introduce an idea management software to do it all for you!
Idea Management Software
A professional idea management software is a centralized and structured system that facilitates:
- Engaging employees at multiple levels
- Capturing ideas systematically at a large scale.
- Bringing in the stakeholders at the right time.
- Prioritizing and evaluating ideas for swift implementation.
- Triggering a smooth and continual idea flow across the organization, even if the team is scattered across multiple bases.
- Implementing directly or after a deep analysis.
- AI-powered idea development.
- Collaborating and discussing effectively.
- Fostering an innovation culture.
- Collecting ideas related to an ongoing or particular business challenge.
Idea and innovation management activities, such as the implementation of software platforms, empower employees to contribute their ideas and drive positive change within the organization.
By tapping into the Drive to Enlarge Capability CVI, companies can create a culture of innovation where employees feel valued, engaged, and motivated to push the boundaries of what’s possible.
So, harness the power of idea and innovation management to fuel innovation and drive success in the modern workplace.
