Despite widespread belief in the power of engagement, employee engagement programmes are often under-utilised.  Typically, one of these common problems cause them to struggle:

• Inflexible – From overly rigid time frames to stringent small print, making use of a scheme sometimes feel like more trouble than it’s worth to the employee.
• Impersonal – when some third-party packages are deployed, they tend to contain offers and incentives from large national chains that may not have any local presence. 
• Rewards that don’t reflect the need of the workforce – a common complaint among employees is that “a free coffee once a month is nice, but not very relevant.”
• Difficult to access – despite cutting-edge innovations in consumer technology, accessing benefits schemes can often be tedious, time consuming and leave employees wading through multiple log-in screens.

Instead of finding the programme engaging, too often employees switch off from the software, and the employer.

Understanding the specific problem around engagement in any organisation is often challenging. In a busy working environment, employees struggle to make time for feedback forms and surveys. 

Unfortunately, even though many engagement programmes are operated digitally, the platforms do not typically offer user-friendly and detailed analytical capability. There is often no easy way for rewards and benefits managers to spot trends, insights and patterns.

How can we fix these problems?

The keystone of any modern engagement strategy should be the employee engagement platform, such as our Hapi app. This serves as an aggregation point for employee benefits and can also act as intranet / employee communications hub for employees.

When utilised correctly, employee engagement platforms offer multiple touchpoints throughout the employee lifecycle, making them a key resource in your recruitment and retention strategy. However, many of the problems above stem from using an employee engagement platform that is not fit for purpose.

So what does a good employee engagement platform look like?

We’ve put together a checklist of features to look for. How does your current system compare?

Does it fit the business?

Take a look at the kind of roles you have and what they require from an engagement platform. Are they office-based, shift workers, geographically dispersed? Do you have contingency staff on different employment terms? Do you have the means to communicate with everyone?

Flexibility

Is it easy to add services, tailor your offer, or integrate an existing provider? Does the platform fit your internal brand and is it appealing to your workforce?

Scalable

Can the provider offer a solution to fit your budget? Will the platform be able to support your business as it evolves?

Communications

Is the platform designed to reach today’s multi-generational workforce? How well do the mobile site and app work compared to desktop site?

One stop shop

Does it connect everything employees need? Think about employee comms, employee benefits, flexible benefits, employee wellbeing, training, pay, CSR, employee reward and recognition, employee discounts… And for HR teams, does it provide real-time reporting to help you optimise your offering?

Engagement

How will the provider help you launch and embed the platform? Will they work with you to keep adoption rates high?

Technical specifications

What platform is it built on? It is secure? It is easy to configure and implement? What about user experience?

If you feel that your employee engagement platform needs some improvement, contact us to see how we can help.