A study by Gallup points out that only 13% of the employees worldwide are engaged at work. Several companies have now realised the importance of employee engagement and are framing strategies to encourage and involve their workforce. However, it is quite easy to be motivated when the work is to your liking. But what happens when employees have to take up tasks that are not to their liking? What if the job itself involves tasks that are uninspiring and repetitive?

Employee engagement is difficult when workers are bored and unmotivated. Lack of commendation for extra efforts, retrenchment of the best workers, or a rapid change in business goals may cause employees to lose their interest in work. So, how to engage employees productively?

What can you do

As a company, you would get several indications about the low productivity of your employees at work. This could be due to innumerable reasons and therefore you need to:

• Identify what is causing the slump in productivity  of your agile workers
• Help by engaging them through interesting activities, hangouts, and changing the way of work

The task is to engage your workforce and provide them a fun-filled purpose and direction.

How to ensure that your employees aren’t bored

In order to keep employees from being bored at work, here are eight practices you can adopt:

Make your employees aware

Often companies fail to make their employees aware of the business conditions, changes in market, changes in goals, and how it affects them. Leaving workers in the dark while fundamental changes occur will only cause shock, inadequacy to respond to public inquiries, and a loss of direction.

It’s best to keep employees informed and aware about the challenges the organization is facing, as this would keep them aligned to their goals as well.

Keep the lines of communication open

Companies need to ensure that employees are able to freely express their opinions and feelings. Facilitating easier conversations and connections spanning in-house and remote-working teams will ensure that employees are able to freely exchange ideas and feel more involved in the affairs of the company.

Flexibility at the workplace

Giving your employees the flexibility to shift their work hours, telecommute a day or two every week, or other work management options will give them a change of pace and scenery. These differences will rejuvenate them and keep them interested, even if they are doing the same work everyday.

Automation of repetitive tasks

Repetitive tasks can often bore employees and reduce their morale. So purchasing a software or office equipment that could automate their work is never a bad idea. A small up-front investment like this would yield great dividends in terms of employee motivation and morale boost.

Introducing gamification

Creating games or competitions around more mundane duties would push employees to get the job done. The reward for the winner doesn’t have to be much but the idea is basically to ensure that the game itself is fun and engaging.

Providing responsibility, training, and development

Some employees lose their interest when  the tasks are not challenging enough. It is important to make the employees feel that they are contributing meaningfully. So they should be given work that allows them stretch the limits of their abilities.

Along with responsibilities, employees should be given the opportunity to grow and develop. Providing training and guidance, and developing their skills would rejuvenate their spirits and make them more engaged.

Leading the way to have fun

As the manager of your company, your employees look up to you for showing them the way. Instead of being cooped up in your office all day long, step out and engage with your employees. Taking a stroll around, engaging in a fun conversatio,n and taking enjoyable short breaks will break the monotony of the work and prevent boredom from creeping into the workplace.

Employees would feel happier and more engaged if they are busy, challenged by, and interested in their work. Following these simple strategies will ensure that the work environment is free from boredom and your employees are agile and motivated.

A lot of these practices require some means to communicate with your employees, and facilitate different types of engagement formats. And the Journyz platform is perfect for that. From initiating new programs to understand the impact of your engagement activities, it helps you keep your ear to the ground, and understand what your team needs.