Employee engagement is a crucial buzzword at the moment. But what exactly does the phrase mean for your business, and how can a company merch store help you create a more engaged, productive, and creative workforce?
Unpacking the buzzwords
Employee engagement is, in part, a rebranding of one of the fundamentals for any workplace - happy workers. However, engagement goes beyond happiness to explore how workers can be satisfied with their work. That goes beyond remuneration into areas like flexible and mobile working arrangements, employee incentives, and even attractive office space. It's about making your employees feel valued because valued employees are more productive and focused on making your company a success.
So why use promotional products?
A well-chosen company promotional product not only sends a message about your company but can also say something equally powerful about how your company values the recipient. Motivational gifts and rewards might be anything from a bag of fun branded items to some high-end apparel or tech gadgets. For example, the recent trend in branded products from high-quality brands makes a perfect fit with swag for motivation, recognition, and reward.
The takeaway?
Promo products can profoundly impact employee engagement by being not just practical but appealing, attractive, and fun, too. However, the use of promo items for engagement needs to be embedded in your employee engagement strategy, from onboarding to rewarding, to make it part of your company culture.
Incorporating gifts into the engagement mix
While a goodie bag filled with extras like a printed pen, branded mug, and sweet treats makes an attractive, welcoming gift when onboarding new employees, the commitment to employee engagement shouldn't stop there. Start by communicating information innovatively, such as using branded Post-Its with valid URLs and phone numbers or bright notebooks that easily translate handwritten notes into digital ones.
For employees who participate in non-departmental projects, for example, volunteer work in the community, branded apparel is practical and reinforces the work's importance. Promo items are also invaluable for strengthening the impact of an employee's work on wider company success.
Research shows that employees are 17 times more likely to feel passionate about project participation when they can see the impact. Therefore, rewarding participants in a successful project with a branded power bank and a personal note is a simple, visible, and cost-effective way of showing your workforce how much they appreciate.
Encouraging camaraderie, fostering recognition
Events that promote camaraderie are part of the culture of any good company—from charity challenges to birthday celebrations. Branded bags, hats, and T-shirts make sense when identifying your team or participating in team-building exercises.
A thoughtful engagement strategy involving high-quality, functional, and attractive promo products your employees will be pleased to receive should be fundamental in recognizing and rewarding achievement and driving employee engagement.
Deepening engagement: peer to peer recognition
While annual recognition awards can foster engagement from the top down, developing meaningful peer-to-peer recognition programs is equally important. These programs allow colleagues to reward each other when they've gone above and beyond what is expected of them, and small promotional items can help reinforce the message. These could range from a 'thanks for your help!' notepad to an item of higher perceived value, such as a wireless phone charger.
Encourage participants to devise their own name and logo for their reward program and printed swag, and you'll create a peer recognition program your employees will want to participate in.
Five ways to engage through promotional items
1. The onboarding swagbag: make new employees feel immediately at home with some well-chosen branded swag. Add at least one high-value item (a wireless charger, a retail-quality backpack) to demonstrate a new employee's value to your company from the start of your relationship.
2. Keep your employees healthy: Health and wellness seminars and gym memberships are proven ways to encourage your workforce to stay fit and healthy. But take it down to a micro-level and assemble a wellness pack with a hand sanitizer, Fitbit, and a workout T-shirt to encourage employees to care for themselves. By showing that you care, you'll engage your employees.
3. Show some love to remote employees: it can be difficult for remote employees to feel connected and in the loop with their colleagues. Show them that off-site doesn't mean being out of mind with thoughtful items like a branded water bottle and phone case that they'll find helpful when moving.
4. Making the commute more bearable: with most workers experiencing a 90-minute commute each day to work in often trying conditions, it's easy for employees to become demotivated. Put together a happy commuting kit with branded earbuds, a phone or tablet case, a notepad, and a custom travel mug in a branded bag to help ease the pain.
5. Don't forget the holidays: holiday gifting is one of the most straightforward ways to engage your employees through recognition and reward. Whether you take the opportunity to present outstanding employees with an award at the Christmas party or leave a personalized thank-you note plus a small company store branded merchandise on their desk, promotional gifts are a proven way to motivate your workforce.
With millions of products available in the promotional products universe, there's never been a better time to recognize, reward, and engage your employees. Flywheel is your go-to online company swag store for all your custom swag needs and employee engagement initiatives.
