Bring back conversations in the workplace with this simple employee engagement idea.

 

Looking for an easy employee engagement idea?

We found a quick way to involve staff in the workplace and start creating conversations around happiness and mood- not just between management but also employees themselves.

In world of tweets, DMs and texts that consist only of emojis, Pat Lane, a 75-year-old South Australian man is trying to bring the lost art of conversation.

Lane said seeing people tied to their phones and other devices at cafes made him a little sad and he decided to do something about it.

“It is a very worrying trend; conversation is the most important thing we can have. I mean, family conflicts are usually resolved by chatting,” Lane states.

Lane, with the help of Mount Gambier City Council in Australia, designed small place cards with a simple phrase, ‘Please Join Me’.

 

The idea is that the cards act as an invitation for strangers to meet and chat.

The cards have been circulated to local cafes for guests to use at their tables.

One cafe worker said, “What a great talking point and conversation starter. It’s a way for someone to sit down and have a chat with someone they’ve never met before [and] bring conversation back in.”

How to improve employee engagement ideas

Here at Celpax, we stress the importance of conversations in the workplace. Without conversations, participation drops as does engagement.

We’ve found that speaking face to face, is the fastest way to increase mood KPI.

So we thought that Pat Lane’s idea of sparking conversations could also be a great way to increase employee engagement.

Why not have cards like this, available in the break or lunch room?

They could be used for spontaneous discussions between employees or employees and managers. Cards can provide an easy, and low pressure environment to start discussing what makes people press the green or the red button.

It’s a simple employee engagement idea but is a conduit for those conversations that might be hard to have otherwise. You might even hear great ideas about how you can improve the workplace or changes you can implement into the workplace.

Like we mentioned, one of the common reasons that we see mood KPI and participation drop is because employees think no one is listening. The sentiment is, “why bother?”.

However, an employee engagement idea like the conversation cards is an easy way to combat this.

Is this something you would put into practice in your workplace?

Do you have any simple engagement ideas? Let us know on Twitter! We löve simple engagement ideas.

 

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