If you read our blogs regularly, you’ll probably know that Pure is a real supporter of employee engagement. It works for everyone – it adds to the bottom line while giving people a great place to work.

Through our own Best Employers awards we’re seeing more and more fantastic engagement strategies being created by employers of all sizes around the East of England. Whether they’re charities, manufacturers, accountancy firms, media agencies or retailers, employers of all kinds are seeing the benefits from truly engaging with their people.

But we remain curious as to what other organisations are doing, since we want to learn from it ourselves, and we’re sure that you would like to keep up to date on what’s happening in the world of employee engagement too.

So we’ve been looking around for more inspiring examples of what employers are doing at the moment. Here are just a few that might just whet your appetite if you’re thinking of ramping up your own engagement activities.

1.    State Street staff give TED talks

State Street, America’s second oldest financial institution is responsible for 12% of the world’s assets. Yet, this long-established organisation is moving with the times and embracing technology in its employee engagement activity - the firm has an exciting partnership with online talk series, TED.

Employees submit presentation ideas for their own TED talks, and those shortlisted are coached by TED to refine their presentations. Employees present their work at the TED@State Street event held each year. Colleagues, friends and families are invited to attend, and presentations even go online on TED’s website.

2.    John Lewis and Waitrose

Ever wondered why staff at your local John Lewis or Waitrose store are so cheery? It might be that the 85,500 permanent employees at the John Lewis Partnership are all partners, and get a share in the benefits and profits.

3.    Wellness scheme for international Mars staff

Multinational giant, Mars, runs a global wellness initiative for its employees, or associates, called Winning with Wellness. The company offers discounted gym memberships, wellness weeks, health screenings, support for people who want to stop smoking, free activities such as yoga, football and badminton, on-site physiotherapy, on-site massage, theatre trips, among other activities, at sites around the world. Everyone is encouraged to get involved, and, importantly, activities are adapted according to the culture of each regional Mars site.

4.    Engagement app at Heathrow

With most of Heathrow’s employees working across different areas of the huge airport, the staff engagement is a real challenge. So they developed an app for staff smartphones – it’s the ideal way to communicate with people on the move or working shifts. The content is regularly updated by employees themselves, sharing important information such as security notices and daily briefs.

5.    Royal Mail staff website

With similar issues to Heathrow Airport, Royal Mail employees are located all over the UK, without desks or access to traditional employee communications, creating significant challenges for the company to keep people engaged. The company’s very own employee website, My Royal Mail, provides colleagues with relevant and topical content, input from the CEO, information about employee benefits, employee shares, charity news,  competitions and opinion polls.

6.    Pure’s wellbeing and fundraising combo

We couldn’t resist including our very own Pedometer Challenge, which combines our wellbeing strategy with our work for charities. Our staff in our offices in Cambridge, Chelmsford, Ipswich and Norwich take part in lunchtime walks, recording their mileage on pedometers as they go. Distances are logged and when we reach a combined target of 500 miles, Pure makes a corporate donation to our chosen charities.

If you want more information about employee engagement and its benefits to your organisation and its workforce, why not give us a call on 01223 299888.