How businesses can use SaaS tools to re-engage employees and improve productivity and loyalty

In the ever-dynamic corporate environment, the value of employee engagement has always been undeniably high. The remote work setup has made it extra challenging to keep employees engrossed and connected with their teams and ensure that they meet deadlines.

A demotivated and an unengaged employee will not guarantee efficiency and productivity, but a relevant employee engagement plan can help businesses create a collaborative ecosystem and a sense of belonging, thereby enhancing overall efficacy.

Why is employee engagement important?

According to Harvard Business Review, organisations that engage with their employees have double the success rate compared to less involved organizations.

Employee engagement is not just limited to creating a growth mindset in the company, but also fosters dedicated personnel and a workplace culture where people inspire each other to work harder and go the extra mile to reach business goals. Usually, people from such workplaces hold one another accountable, embrace change, and challenge the status quo.

Ways to boost employee engagement with SaaS

Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace report states that 85 percent of employees are not engaged at their workplace. Part of this problem is attributed to companies’ inability to empower their employees.

When people are empowered in an organisation, they - as employees - don’t feel anonymous, irrelevant, and/or invalidated which makes them more open to engagement.

A leader would play a key role to boost employee engagement and help their team build confidence and a sense of belongingness. Employees, especially new hires, must also establish autonomy and flexibility as they mature and grow in their workplace.

This might seem challenging early on, yet it is very much achievable, especially if you leverage the functions of cloud computing. Companies should start small with just three simple ways to boost employee engagement.

• Conduct employee surveys
• Create a rewards system
• Communicate transparently

SaaS tools for employee engagement

The most productive teams rely on SaaS tools to work together effectively. Companies that can afford to invest in the creation of new business processes with these new collaboration tools will gain a competitive edge.

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Workplace sharing tools

In the digital workplace era with more and more employees working remotely, workplace sharing tools are key to task management.

One sure-fire way to set up a project for success is by centralising all project-related activities – from scheduling meetings, document and link sharing, and assigning tasks using tools like Microsoft Teams and Slack.

Code-sharing tools

Sharing code amidst the team can be one of the biggest pain points of managing a large-scale project. Most collaboration tools have a way to share written content and images, but they don’t handle code particularly well.

There are, however, these super-handy code-sharing tools that can save the day. Try GitHub and Google Code.

Communication tools

Whether it is a day-to-day meeting, a weekly review, a webinar, a customer pitch, or any other collaborative meet, communication is of essence. There are also options to record these meetings, calling in by phone, and multiple host privileges. With a paid version of certain tools, there’s also an option to store your recorded calls to the cloud and auto-transcribe too.

File-sharing tools

File sharing was a major pain in the early 2000s as large files could not be sent via email. Now file-sharing tools like OneDrive, Dropbox, and Google Drive have made file sharing extremely smooth.

Conferencing tools

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, video-conferencing tools have been business saviors for both enterprises and SMBs. These tools have seen a massive spike in the number of users during the pandemic and amid remote work with apps like Zoom, Skype, or gMeet setting the stage for remote work very efficiently.

In times to come, there will be a right mix of office days and work from home (WFH) days with companies adapting to the WFH culture deeply to keep their employees safe - and achieve some savings by reducing infrastructure costs.

Working from home, as we all know, is exhausting and makes it difficult for employees to focus on their daily activities and tasks, stay connected with their teams and remain motivated enough to give their 100 percent.

Businesses must be focused and committed to keeping their most prized possessions, their workforce, happy and satisfied by engaging them actively, sharing all key communication, handing out performance and milestone-based rewards, and investing in various SaaS tools to assist teams to come together and work just like they used to in an office setup.