How engaged are your employees?

If you’re not sure or don’t think it really matters, you need to change your perspective. Especially if you’re trying to establish a start-up.

Employee engagement is key to boosting your productivity.

And to increase that engagement, there are certain employee activities that you need to start implementing sooner than later.

9 Employee Activities That Will Create a Strong Team

If your team isn’t exactly of the “there’s no I in ‘team'” mentality, there’s a problem.

Because you can be a great leader, but if they’re not working well together, then they’re less likely to be working well for you.

So below are some activities – for both you and your employees – that will foster team spirit while pushing your productivity skyward.

1. Give Your Team the Insider Information

Here’s the thing.

When it comes to keeping people in the know, HR and leadership are generally faltering. And when your team feels that you’re holding back on important info, it doesn’t do much toward building trust.

Without trust, there just isn’t gonna be engagement. It’s Human Communications 101.

So keeping your team in the know is a key component of any employee engagement strategy.

Give them an understanding of the challenges that the leadership team faces. And keep them informed of the direction in which the company is going.

2. Administer An Employee Survey

Humans are social creatures. They love to gripe. Especially when they can do so anonymously. Hence the popularity of Yelp.

But they’re also willing to give praise when deserved.

Giving your employees the chance to do either or both of these – without running the risk of being escorted out by security the next day – tells them you care about what they have to say and that you’re willing to make the necessary changes to keep them.

No big surprise that there are all sorts of tools (and we’re not talking about your employees) that can help you create these surveys to send out to your team.

And right along with making your employees feel good about being heard, you’ll be able to actually measure and track engagement with these surveys.

3. Encourage Learning

And then provide your employees with opportunities to do so.

That doesn’t mean paying through the nose to give them a Master’s Degree. What it DOES mean is offering educational opportunities within the company.

Start by assessing their needs and preferences. Create a curriculum based on that and then set up 1-2 classes per week at a time that works for them.

You’re essentially establishing your own Academy of Learning, but right in-house. Then when they graduate, give them a raise. Not enough in the budget? Okay. Then at least throw a party.

4. Prioritize Work-Life Balance

Chances are, a good number of your employees are trying to juggle a lot of different things. And it doesn’t take much for the work-life balance to get thrown way off kilter.

But come on. Striking that balance is rough. And when it’s out of balance, your employees’ work performance is going to struggle. So speak with your team to find out what you can do to make the work-life balance a priority.

For example, you might have an employee with a bunch of kids who needs more flexibility and wants to work from home when possible. Meanwhile, over in the next office/cubicle, you might have an employee with a bunch of kids who relishes the hours at work to have adult conversations.

Bottom line, everyone’s different. So find out what each person needs.

5. Give back

Social involvement is the name of the game these days.

So get your team involved in social and charity initiatives. Pull the team together to brainstorm a cause about which everyone feels passionate. Then find ways to donate time to this cause.

Yeah, finding a specific cause can take some time, but it’ll be worth it.

Because working as a team toward a cause will translate right over into working as a team at the office. You’ll be helping folks while increasing productivity.

6. Praise Good Work

This one’s a no-brainer. An employee does good work, you acknowledge it with praise.

Because aside from the satisfaction that shining star of an employee will experience, you’ll also be creating an environment riddled with good vibes.

And you’ll be leading by example – encouraging team members to praise one another for their own victories. Plus, in terms of productivity, it sure beats getting attention only for errors.

Because let’s face it – that’s a serious downer.

7. Focus on Their Health

When you need to temporarily drown your sorrows, donuts are awesome.

When you’re sweating a deadline to finish your work, donuts are the enemy. Particularly when it comes to productivity.

Here’s the deal – offering healthier food options is a huge boon to productivity. That’s because at its root, healthy food means increased performance, less illness and ultimately lower healthcare costs.

So make healthier foods available on-site with office snack delivery and/or healthy vending machine options. You needn’t completely swap out Cheetos and M&M’s for almonds and raisins though.

Just have those options there.

8. Show Them the Money

That doesn’t mean share every bank statement. That would be ludicrous.

Instead, give your team a quick presentation of the financial state of your company each quarter. This will show them how their efforts directly affect the financial activities of your business.

From there, you can set some objectives and get them hyped up about meeting those objectives so that the next quarter looks even shinier.

9. Just Have Some Fun

Seriously.

If you can swing it, take a half day on an occasional Friday and declare it an afternoon to go on a field trip of fun.

It could be laser tag, a scavenger hunt, bowling or paint ball. It doesn’t matter. Just find some cool way for everyone to get together and have a good time. It’ll strengthen interaction and build a stronger sense of community.

And there could be some embarrassing photo ops too.

But that’s just a bonus.

Boost Your Productivity

It all comes down to getting your employees more involved with both the company and with one another.

The above employee activities are a great place to start – for you and for them. They’ll be key to the success of your start-up.

And once you’ve got your team collaborating and producing, check out my ultimate startup checklist to ensure that everything else is in place.