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Learn how modern employee engagement strategies lead to a happier team and improved business outcomes.

Employee engagement and a strong company culture are essential, but what if you’re in the business of helping to run other businesses? That’s the dilemma faced by many managed service providers (MSPs). Their employees spend most of their time putting out fires for different organizations, leaving little room for anything else.

As a leader, you might not always have the time or resources to recognize and celebrate your team’s great work—and critical wins. It doesn’t take long before they start to feel overworked and underappreciated, leading to dissatisfaction, burnout, and high turnover.

Happier employees are the winning answer. Crewhu offers modern strategies, from gamification to automatic recognition, to help you recognize and reward your most valuable business asset: your team.

Modern employee engagement strategies

Traditional employee recognition methods such as Facebook groups or in-person social events aren’t as effective anymore. This is especially true with remote or hybrid workers. 

Crewhu helps you develop long-term employee engagement efforts that focus on your employees’ needs, accounting for their diverse experiences, ages, backgrounds, and preferences to maximize satisfaction across the board.

Game on for performance tracking

Everyone likes to be challenged. They want to win even more. 

You can tap into this need for both recognition and competition through gamified performance tracking. This innovative approach not only makes tracking progress more fun and engaging for employees but also helps to achieve team goals, sparking a sense of excitement and competitiveness among your crew.

These systems can encourage better communication and collaboration between managers and team members since performance and recognition occur in real time. They also provide valuable performance data so that data-driven decisions can be made to enhance improvements.

Gamified performance tracking elements

• Points and badges: Award points for completing tasks or achieving milestones, and give badges for specific accomplishments.
• Leaderboards: Display a leaderboard to show employees’ progress and encourage friendly competition.
• Challenges: Set up challenges for employees to complete, which can be individual or team-based.
• Progress bars: Use progress bars to show employees how close they are to achieving their goals.
• Rewards: Offer rewards for achieving specific goals or milestones. 

Internal recognition badges

Recognition badges can be given digitally to celebrate accomplishments. These might include: 

• Meeting performance goals
• Completing training
• Exhibiting extraordinary teamwork
• And more

You set the time and method of rewarding badges, whether it’s something you do regularly or as a surprise.

Badges are entirely customizable to suit your needs and areas of focus. Start by conducting employee surveys or use your observations to determine what motivates your crew to strive for a win. You’ll also need to establish the criteria and eligibility for winning badges.

Automatic recognition

You can also establish automated and peer-to-peer shout-outs via your internal communication channels, such as Slack or Teams. Integrate apps like Bonusly, Recognize, HeyTaco, and Sweet Kudos, which allow you or your employees to send peer-to-peer or group recognitions. 

How to set up internal recognitions: 

- Integrate the app within your communications channels.

- Configure the types of recognition you want to employ.

- Set up the types of rewards.

- Advertise and encourage your crew to use the app.

Consider adding gamification elements like leaderboards to encourage participation and friendly competition. 

Invest in the right tools

When was the last time you checked with your team to make sure they have the tools they need to succeed in serving your customers? Aside from the “if money was no object” requests, are there upgrades or equipment you can provide that help your team raise productivity?

Not only does it help them do a better job for clients, but it also makes them feel better about themselves. Removing the barrier to getting things done raises engagement.

Old-fashioned communication always works

While modern tools and digital bells and whistles make employee recognition easier, remember to employ the time-honored tradition of “talking to each other.” Effective communication is a cornerstone of employee engagement, especially when dealing with people from different experiences, backgrounds, generations, and cultures. 

It’s a reliable method that always works. 

Keep it simple. If you want to know what motivates your employees to succeed, ask them. While you may get a wide range of answers, you’re bound to find some recurring themes. There are many ways to develop increased autonomy, for example. How flexible can you be when it comes to specific organizational procedures? Is there room to allow for individuality?

You may think you’re doing the right thing when you announce policies and procedures that apply to everyone. You may not realize that nobody is interested in being treated equally. They’re not clones. They would prefer to be treated fairly.

Get your clients in on the game

Clients often express their gratitude for a job well done. Unfortunately, those words of praise don’t always reach the crew members who put out the fire. Rewards and recognition from clients can increase employee engagement. In the case of MSPs, a second level of recognition is just as important. 

Do you make it easy for your clients to pass appreciation to your team members?

Invest in customer feedback and engagement to ensure your people receive a steady flow of input from your clients. Take the lumps with the sugar. It’s better to make it easy to receive complaints than to shield yourself from information you can use to improve.

Making employee recognition your winning move

You and your team have an interesting dilemma. You work primarily for other companies, yet finding ways to foster your organization’s identity is essential. Recognizing your crew is crucial if you’re an MSP will increase engagement and trust and help employees remember that they represent your organization. We all need to remember—and appreciate—who we work for. 

If you’re ready to play, book a demo with us today to discover how Crewhu can help boost employee motivation and satisfaction.