The

4Ms
that supercharge
employee
engagement
 M1 Moments that matter

The 4Ms that

supercharge M2 Manager involvement

employee
engagement M3 Make connections & make it fun

M4 Marketing, marketing & marketing

 It won’t come as any surprise to
read that an engaged employee
is far more likely to be happy and
willing to give their best at work.
And you, as a manager, can be instrumental in creating
an environment that helps your team feel engaged.

90%
of HR professionals believe
80%
of your friends in HR believe
there is solid evidence engagement is highly linked
linking engagement to trust in leadership and
to performance1 the relationship with their
immediate supervisor2

1The State of Employee Engagement in 2019, HR Research Institute

2The State of Employee Engagement in 2019, HR Research Institute
 So what happens when you
can’t see members of your
team in person and important
everyday cues like body
language aren’t as visible?
LinkedIn uses a 4M framework
to empower employee engagement
and to support a culture of learning.
The good news is that the 4M method can be used
by all managers, whether they have local or remote teams,
so use this guide to create the kind of environment that
inspires your team to give their best.
M1
Moments
that matter
 Consider an employee's day-to-day and longer-term
experiences to identify key moments that matter to them
(e.g. onboarding, performance reviews, career conversations).
Then, consider 1:1s, significant company days or cultural experiences
(e.g. Chinese New Year, Ramadan or national holidays).
Managers should use these moments to
build and deepen employee engagement.
 M1 Moments that matter

Onboarding In your role as a manager

make sure they know:
As the first experience of your
• How things work
organisation, onboarding is
• Organizational values and norms
pivotal to creating a sense
• Their job description (which includes
of inclusion and belonging. well-defined accountabilities and any
boundaries around authority or available
resources they should be aware of3)
• Some early wins
• Their assigned “buddy” who will help
them to build a sense of community

3 To Retain New Hires Spend More Time Onboarding Them, 2008, Ron Carucci, HBR
 M1 Moments that matter
1:1 Meetings
For managers, it is important
not to underestimate the
impact of 1:1 meetings.
They are a very useful tool
to gauge how a member
of your team is feeling.
• Begin with a catch-up both personally
and professionally.
• Follow that with the status and progress
of their projects, as well as discuss future plans.
• Next it’s time to find out what obstacles
or challenges your employee is facing.
• Close out with making decisions on what will
be accomplished before your next meeting.
Decide who will tackle which tasks
and recap any new or updated goals.
TIP to keep 1:1s genuine and focused:
Turn off notifications on your computer and put your
phone on silent. Listen well and you’ll come away
having a good understanding of their wellbeing,
and be able to identify ways to support them.
M1 Moments that matter

Significant These are great moments to foster

rapport and individual connections.
company For a multicultural team this is a great
or cultural time to learn more about each other
and celebrate diversity.
moments Use video conferencing to celebrate
and encourage everyone to participate
in a culturally sensitive manner.
M2
Manager
involvement
 After you have identified the moments for employee
engagement, be mindful of how important your role
can be in the everyday experiences of your team too.
Follow the next steps to keep your team engaged.
M2 Manager involvement

Set clear Probably one of the most basic rules

of managing people; however make
goals and sure you regularly revisit and
communicate goals and expectations.
expectations This is particularly important for remote
working as a quickly changing
circumstance can leave room
for confusion with prioritisation.
M2 Manager involvement

Identify Help your team to analyse gaps

to reach their goals and find ways
what’s to bridge those gaps.

needed Fifty-four percent4 of employees

say they would spend more time
to succeed learning if they had specific
courses recommended to help
them reach their career goals.

4Workplace Learning Report 2020, LinkedIn Learning

M2 Manager involvement

Support Learning doesn’t need to stop

while working remotely.
continued The trick here is to focus on sharing
learning while courses that are snackable and
topical, such as training on a
working remotely specific tool or skill.
M2 Manager involvement

Celebrate It doesn’t matter whether it’s something

big that’s recognised formally with
successes an award, bonus or promotion,
or if it’s a smaller win that’s signposted
with an informal verbal thank you
or a handwritten note.
All these methods can be meaningful,
especially if they’re done in a timely
and genuine way. They’re also
motivating and exciting — everyone
wants their good work to be applauded.
M3
Make
connections
& make it fun
Now, you have ticked the boxes on moments and involvement.
What's next?
Try whenever you can to make the work fun and foster
connections. Fun competitions that solve real problems are
a great way to boost morale and keep people engaged,
especially in somewhat depressing times .5

5 How to Make Solving Problems Fun, Peter Bregman, 2009, HBR

M3 Make connections & make it fun

Don’t No one really looks forward to ‘organised fun’,

so don’t force it.
fake fun Instead think about your attitude, we’re all
grateful for the colleague that slips easily into
laughter and makes jokes even as they work
hard at something.
And when they do fail, they laugh and keep
going. It’s contagious. Which is why it’s such
a critical leadership quality, so try to find ways
to inject some light-hearted relief into work.

Some great examples for remote

workers are video conferencing
dress-ups, cook-offs and games.
M3 Make connections & make it fun

Assign Pair team members with each other to

create a second layer of mutual support
buddies and guard against emotional isolation.

for mutual Ask the buddies to check in daily

and assess overall engagement
support and well-being6.

6 8 Ways to Manage Your Team While Social Distancing, Timothy R. Clark, 2020, HBR
M4
Marketing,
marketing
& marketing
Last but not least, utilise all your modes of communication
to promote culture and internal competitions to boost
employee involvement and participation.
M4 Marketing, marketing & marketing

Make sure you Is it Teams, Slack, Email,

Skype or WhatsApp?
know the channels Then remember the rule of 3, you need
your team are to say it 3 times across different types
of communication if you really want
already using to be heard.
M4 Marketing, marketing & marketing

Build your This will allow you to promote culture

and increase engagement.
internal LinkedIn runs an annual competition
marketing each year called the LinkedIn Learning
Challenge for employees. The winning
campaign team wins a trophy for the highest
number of courses completed.
Apart from the trophy, the L&D team also
prepare emails, social sharing materials
and videos for the competing groups and
individuals to promote their activity.
Checklist: 1. Identify Moments that matter
☐ Think about an employee’s journey in your organisation
and find out the key moments that matter to them
Manager’s guide to e.g Onboarding, 1:1s and significant cultural events.

engaging remote workers 2. Manager involvement

☐ Activate managers of all levels to be involved in driving
employee engagement
☐ Help employees to bridge the gap between goals and skills
☐ Encourage managers to share highly relevant learning
courses with their teams

3. Make it fun
☐ Make it fun with gamification and internal competitions
to add excitement and motivation
☐ Recognise and celebrate individual and team wins

4. Marketing, marketing and marketing

☐ Use internal marketing campaigns to promote gamifications
and competitions to boost involvement and participation
☐ Use multiple internal channels such as email, team groups
and chat
About LinkedIn Learning
LinkedIn Learning is a leading online learning
platform that helps professionals learn relevant
skills and achieve their goals.
It combines a library of 15,500+ up-to-date
courses in 7 different languages with an engaging,
intuitive, and personalized learner experience.
LinkedIn Learning also includes real-time skills
insights that help learning leaders identify skills
gaps and learner needs.

For more information, visit http://learning.linkedin.com

Ready to explore
how LinkedIn Get in touch with us to schedule a free demo
Learning can help to discuss how LinkedIn Learning can help
your employees learn relevant skills, achieve
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