By alisonbarlow|Jul 5, 2024|10:58 am BST

The hospitality sector is currently battling a record number of unfilled roles, escalating costs, and higher customer expectations. In this climate, employee engagement is incredibly important.

Poor employee engagement can add to an employer’s bottom line; an estimated $7.8bn globally is lost in productivity yearly due to low staff engagement. It can also increase the number of vacancies an operator has to fill, while businesses with an engaged workforce benefit from an 18% reduction in staff turnover.

So, how do you ensure your employees are engaged, motivated, and enjoy their work?

Four in five hospitality workers say that benefits encourage them to stay longer in a job, with 45% listing online access to pay slips as one of three benefits that matter most to them, alongside gym discounts and face-to-face training. Three-quarters of hospitality staff say employee engagement services also make a business a more attractive place to work.

Fourth’s Engagement App is designed to help employers actively engage their workers, providing a central hub for teams to bond, learn and communicate with each other. As part of our Level Up product release, we’ve recently unveiled a host of exciting upgrades to the App designed to meet the specific needs of hospitality teams and help our customers supercharge engagement.

Level up employee engagement

The Engagement App empowers employees to control their personal information, reducing the pressure on managers to update records when information like bank details, next of kin or addresses change. Now, individuals can view and change their records directly in the App, reducing the chance of errors and giving everyone visibility and control over their data.

But employees can take control of more than that. The App has always served as a hub for staff, a place where they can view policies, stay up-to-date with team news and access training materials. The latest upgrades maintain all of these features while supporting individuals to self-serve across a broader range of HR activities. Staff can view their payslips online, and functionality including eSign – which will be familiar to those who use our Onboarding App – also allows employees to sign official documents directly from their mobile devices, an invaluable tool for HR teams who can now send and track individual documents or bulk send documents for the entire team to sign.

Perhaps the most significant change to the App – and one that managers up and down the country will be pleased to see – is the introduction of Messaging. Intended to replace clunky WhatsApp groups and provide employees with distinct internal work channels, Fourth Messaging is slick and secure. Users can react to messages, tag people, vote in polls, share images or receive read receipts just as they would in WhatsApp.

Messing also includes the functionality to automatically set up location channels or channels by role, making it easy for management to ensure each team is kept up-to-date with relevant information. Employees are automatically added and removed from groups when they are onboarded, leave the business or change roles. This improved message management supports increased engagement by ensuring individuals are not overwhelmed by a group chat targeting everyone and can maintain a divide between work channels and those used to communicate with friends and family. Managers also benefit from greater control over messaging, ensuring that access is carefully managed and internal communications are appropriate, safe and inclusive for all employees.

Boost employee engagement with Fourth

As hospitality operators battle depleted teams and high costs, maximising employee engagement has never been more important. Fourth’s Engagement App gives employers and their teams the tools they need to maximise workplace enjoyment. From on-demand access to essential resources, to safe places to communicate with team members, the Fourth Engagement App is a critical tool for teams big and small.