What is employee engagement, and is it important to the success of my company? This is a question that almost every company owner, human resources professional and supervisor asks themselves at some point. With a sound understanding of employee engagement, it’s possible to harness its power to build a stronger team.
So, what is employee engagement?
Engaged employees, as defined by Gallup, are “those who are highly involved in, enthusiastic about and committed to their work and workplace”.
This excerpt from Blessing White’s The State of Employee Engagement 2008 provides additional clarity: “Engaged employees stay for what they give; disengaged employees stay for what they get”.
Why is employee engagement important?
According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) — an expert in matters regarding employee engagement in HR — a growing number of executives say that “enhancing employee engagement is one of their top five global business strategies.” And they’re homing in on this strategy because of the many benefits of employee engagement. These benefits include:
- Reduced Turnover
There’s nothing worse than a high employee turnover rate. Not only does this keep you on a constant chase for new talent, but it also costs you money in training costs.
Reducing turnover is one of the most common employee engagement goals. Consider this: Highly engaged employees are 12 times less likely to leave their company than those who are not engaged.
- Happier Employees
Employees tend to feel happier in their roles if they feel heard, respected and have a clear idea of their purpose. Engaged employees are also more likely to maintain a positive outlook and enjoyable attitude, which is important for cultivating a collegial atmosphere at work and for ensuring good client interactions. In addition, happier employees are easier to motivate.
- Increased Productivity
There’s no better feeling than realizing that your team is working at peak efficiency while meeting all productivity-related goals. Time after time, research studies show that engaged employees are more productive than those who are simply going through the motions. For example, a Gallup study noted that “organizations with highly engaged employees have 21 percent greater profitability”.
- Higher Level of Trust
When your employees are engaged, it’s easier to trust that they’re doing their job without fail. And with that in mind, you won’t feel nearly as inclined to micromanage. That saves you time while also giving your workers freedom. For managers, this is one of the most appealing benefits of employee engagement.
Trust in the workplace is critical to short- and long-term success. Employee engagement is one of the many things that can help with this.
- Better Home Life
Work/life balance is something everyone seeks, and get this — engaged employees often have a better home life. According to a Kansas State University study titled “Employees Who Are Engaged in Their Work Have Happier Home Life”, employees who are engaged in their work have better moods and more satisfaction at home.
So, when you do your part in boosting employee engagement, you’re helping more than your company. You’re also helping your employees lead a better life overall. And that can do wonders for performance, turnover rate and more.
How can you leverage internal communication systems to boost engagement?
There’s no shortage of tactics you can do to reap the benefits of employee engagement. However, leveraging internal communication systems is one of the best ways of boosting engagement. With these systems already in place, success comes down to using the technology in the right way at the right time.
Here are some easy-to-implement tips:
- Reach all employees through existing internal communication channels. The type of message being sent should dictate the type of channel. For urgent or real-time issues, it’s best to use synchronous channels like Teams or Yammer. For non-pressing issues and evergreen content, it’s best to use asynchronous tools like email or the company intranet.
- Share the organization’s mission and values so that employees can understand the purpose of their work. When employees see how their work connects to the bigger picture, they are more likely to engage in their job.
- Prioritize feedback via internal communication systems. Today’s employees prefer transparent, two-way communication, as opposed to the top-down communication approach of years past.
- Use Internal communications to amplify the impact of an engaging management style. Use these systems to implement an engaging management style that helps employees feel seen
- Distribute employee satisfaction surveys to understand where improvements are needed. In addition to getting raw scores (quantitative feedback) from employees, it’s also important to have employees tell you why they feel the way they do (quantitative feedback).
- Use internal communication tools to improve onboarding and training processes. A recent study found that a poor onboarding experience can significantly undermine the effectiveness of employees for many years.
- Encourage employees to share their thoughts, feedback and advice. Since getting honest feedback in a face-to-face setting can be a challenge, digital communication tools can be a better choice when it comes to getting employees’ honest thoughts.
The right internal communication systems can make the difference between a highly engaged organization and one that struggles to win in this area of business. This holds true regardless of what other types of employee engagement tactics are used.
How can internal communication analytics help with employee engagement?
It’s one thing to provide robust internal communication to employees, but another thing entirely for you and your team to use them effectively. By focusing on internal communication analytics, you can more successfully:
- Analyze high- and low-performing communications
- Boost engagement among inactive and infrequent users
- Compare user behavior
- Identify trending topics
- Identify bottlenecks
- Conduct sentiment analysis
- Quantify progress toward employee engagement goals
Analytics tools for internal communications are very effective for measuring employee engagement. They can reveal which employees are reading which emails and other posted content. These tools can show the most access areas of a company’s intranet and which employee engagement ideas are the most popular.
Available through Tryane’s analytics solutions, sentiment analysis is on the cutting edge of measuring employee engagement. This approach uses automation and AI to gauge staff mentality based on what they are typing in emails, text messages, comments and other forms of business communications.
With the help of Tryane’s analytics tools — such as those for SharePoint and Yammer — you’re able to better understand how internal communications impact engagement. Contact us to learn more and to get started.