Feeling overwhelmed trying to boost morale and productivity? We get it. But if you’re not using AI for employee engagement, you may be doing far more work than you should.
We’re here to help. We'll show you five ways to use AI to take your employee engagement game to the next level.
We’ll cover:
- What is employee engagement?
- 5 ways you can use AI to bring employee engagement levels up
- Lindy — the best AI for employee engagement
Let’s get started!
What is employee engagement?
Employee engagement — you’ve definitely heard the term before, but what does it actually mean? Simply put, engaged employees care about the work they do and the company they work for. They feel passionate and committed to their jobs.
Qualtrics says that companies with engaged employees:
- See a 2.5x growth in revenue
- 40% reduction in employee turnover
- 18% higher productivity
- 12% customer advocacy
- 50% fewer absence days
Among quite a few other benefits. So, keeping employees engaged is extremely important if you want to have a healthy business.
How to use AI for employee engagement
#1: Ask employees context-aware questions at the right times
AI can boost engagement by asking employees thought-provoking questions, but timing and relevance are very important. Context-aware AI taps into employee data and activity to make interactions feel genuinely helpful.
How AI helps:
- Project-related prompts: After a project wraps up, AI could ask, "What was your biggest takeaway from this project?" or "Where did you find the most challenges?" encouraging reflection and learning. This helps individuals identify strengths and areas for improvement. Teams gain valuable feedback they might otherwise miss.
- Skill development suggestions: If an employee expresses interest in a particular skill, AI might follow up with, "Would you like me to find some relevant courses or resources?" This proactively supports growth, showing employees that the company invests in their development.
- Proactive check-ins: During high-workload periods, AI could initiate a quick "How are you feeling on a scale of 1-10?" to gauge stress levels and offer support if needed. This shows care and can uncover potential stress points before they turn into burnout.
#2: Personalizing questions and delivering in a chat-based format
Generic surveys and questionnaires can feel impersonal. AI-powered personalization and conversational delivery make employee interactions more engaging.
How AI helps:
- Tailored questions: AI considers individual employee profiles, recent activity, and past responses to ask relevant questions. This also gets you questions that are relevant, making employees feel seen and understood, not just another number in a survey.
- Conversational interfaces: Questions feel natural and engaging when delivered through a friendly chatbot, mimicking a real conversation. Employees are far more likely to engage honestly with a friendly chatbot than a rigid form.
- Micro-surveys on the go: AI can ask quick, focused questions within existing chat platforms (like Slack) where employees already spend time, boosting participation. This increases participation, providing HR with a real-time pulse of employee sentiment.
- Remembers preferences: AI learns how employees like to interact (timing, frequency, question style), refining its approach for a more personalized experience.
- Adapts to changing needs: As employees progress along their career path, AI adjusts the focus of its questions to ensure continual relevance. This guarantees that support remains relevant as they grow within the company.
#3: Gamified recognition programs
Traditional recognition programs can become stale. AI injects a bit of fun and healthy competition into recognizing employees, motivating them to go above and beyond.
How AI helps:
- Tracks achievements: AI monitors employee performance data and automatically awards points or badges for milestones completed, goals met, or positive customer feedback.
- Introduces competition: Leaderboards and visible progress bars can add a playful competitive element, driving employees to earn more rewards.
- Makes recognition social: AI broadcasts achievements across company channels, allowing peers to offer "likes," comments, and public recognition.
- Customizes rewards: AI suggests reward options that align with employee interests, making the recognition feel more meaningful and personalized.
- Provides real-time feedback: As employees earn points or badges, AI offers encouraging messages and insights into their progress, making the experience more rewarding..
Deloitte Leadership Academy: Deloitte famously turned their leadership training program into an engaging game-like experience, boosting completion rates and improving knowledge retention.
#4: Sentiment analysis
Understanding how employees feel is one of the pillars of maintaining a positive workplace culture. AI-powered sentiment analysis unlocks valuable insights from employee communication.
How AI helps:
- Analyzes communication patterns: AI examines written communication (emails, chats, survey responses) for tone, word choice, and emotional indicators, highlighting potential stress or dissatisfaction.
- Tracks sentiment over time: Identifies trends in overall employee sentiment, helping HR pinpoint periods of declining morale or increased positivity.
- Provides actionable insights: AI identifies specific areas of concern (workload, management, resources), allowing HR to take proactive steps to address issues.
- Alerts for potential issues: AI can flag sudden changes in sentiment or communication patterns, providing HR with early warning signs of problems before they escalate.
- Offers data-driven recommendations: Based on sentiment analysis, AI can suggest targeted interventions or changes to policies, procedures, or the work environment to improve employee well-being.
#5: AI-powered mentorship management
You’ve got an employee engagement platform, yes, but how are you going to get employees to actually, you know, engage with it? AI-powered mentorship management can help match employees with mentors and guide meaningful conversations.
How AI helps:
- Personalized matching. AI looks at employees’ skills, interests, and career goals to match them with mentors who can provide the most value. No more generic mentor assignments or hoping employees will find good mentors on their own!
- Contextual conversation starters. AI can suggest personalized questions and discussion points for mentors and mentees to get the ball rolling. Things like “I saw you just finished a big project. What did you learn from that experience?” or “What are you hoping to gain from this mentorship?”
- Guidance on key topics. AI gives mentors recommendations for important areas to discuss with their mentees, like career planning, skill development, work-life balance, company culture, etc. This helps ensure mentees get the full, rounded support they need.
- Feedback to improve the program. By analyzing conversations and surveys, AI provides insights into what’s working well in the mentorship program and what could be improved. For example, if many mentees express interest in leadership opportunities, the company may want to focus mentorship discussions more on career growth.
The best AI for employee engagement
Lindy is a powerful AI assistant platform that empowers businesses to enhance operations, deliver exceptional support experiences, and drive meaningful employee engagement.
With its no-code interface and focus on customization, Lindy adapts to a huge range of needs across customer support, HR, recruiting, sales, operations, and more.
How Lindy helps:
- Personalize interactions: Lindy can analyze employee data to deliver context-aware questions, personalized recommendations, and tailored support, fostering a sense of individual value.
- Boost morale through gamification: Turn recognition programs into engaging experiences with automated points, badges, leaderboards, and customized rewards powered by Lindy.
- Unlock insights through sentiment analysis: Lindy can delve into employee communication to understand emotions, track sentiment over time, and proactively highlight potential areas of concern for HR.
- Drive meaningful connections with mentorship: Lindy can facilitate intelligent mentor matching, guide conversations with prompts, and provide data-driven insights to optimize mentorship programs.
- Make interactions feel natural: Lindy's conversational interface and ability to integrate with existing chat platforms create a more seamless and engaging employee experience.
- Personalize interactions and boost morale: Lindy analyzes employee data for context-aware questions and tailors recognition programs with gamified elements to make support feel individual and rewarding.
- Drive meaningful connections with mentorship: Lindy facilitates intelligent mentor matching, guides conversations, and provides data-driven insights to optimize mentorship programs, fostering growth and a sense of community.
- Tap into a vast range of integrations: Lindy boasts over 3,000 out-of-the-box integrations, including:
- HR tools: Workday, BambooHR, ADP, Namely, etc.
- Communication platforms: Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, etc.
- Survey providers: Qualtrics, SurveyMonkey, Google Forms, etc.
- Project management: Asana, Trello, Jira, etc.
Summing up
And those were 5 ways to use AI for employee engagement.
Technology is powerful, but true engagement comes from connection. AI isn't about replacing relationships; it's about amplifying them.
Imagine the possibilities: Mentorships that spark growth, recognition that fuels motivation, and insights that build a workplace where everyone feels valued. Isn't that the kind of company you want to be a part of?
