Employee Engagement – An introduction
As a business owner, your employees are your biggest asset. Engaging with them and communicating effectively can give you a huge strategic advantage. How well a message is communicated is as important as the message itself. Here are our top ten pointers for your employee engagement and internal comms:
1. Why you should include employee engagement and internal comms in your people strategy
There are four main reasons why this is an effective strategy. It helps you to:
• Engage with your team
• Inform them of changes to the direction the business is taking
• Inspire role-model behaviour and their purpose within the company
• Communicate any challenges, innovations and new products or services that the business offers
2. It defines what do you stand for:
The key reason for this to educate your employees and give them direction – it ensures that they know where the business is going. A good starting point is to have a clear plan to share your
– Vision and mission for the business
– The values you stand for
– Goals for the business in terms of targets / direction
– Focus not just on what you’re communicating but also how you’re communicating it.
Internal comms can help employees feel connected to the business, keep them engaged and motivated.
3. Have a plan
Employee engagement and internal comms doesn’t just happen – you need to have a clearly defined strategy of how you will disseminate information to your team. This could include:
• A review – allowing you to benchmark the level of communication right now
• Be honest – clearly identify what needs improvement and the messages you want to deliver
• Identify how you deliver the communications – what channels will you use to communicate? These could include company briefings, email, noticeboards, your intranet or through your management team
• Have a well-formulated strategy to keep you on track and be consistent – this is not a one-off exercise!
4. Keep it simple
Don’t try to over complicate things – to be effective communication should be kept simple so that the message doesn’t get lost in translation.
• Give your team the opportunity to participate – don’t forget communication is a two-way process
• Use tools that foster internal communications best practices include:
o Implementing company chat software like Slack, Yammer or HipChat
o Using cloud technology such as Google Drive whenever possible
o Using one platform for all your email, calendars, documents, etc. (e.g. Google, Apple, Microsoft)
o Avoiding email overload with visual communications through digital signage, wall graphics, desk reminders
Did you know? – 65% of the population are visual learners, so chances are there are many of them in your workplace. When done right, visuals convey information in an easy-to-digest manner.
5 Measure – whenever possible
Keep evaluating what works and what doesn’t. Consider how you communicate the team’s performance in an effective way.
– Being able to quantify and see how the company is performing can do wonders for your team’s work ethic.
– Metrics should inform employees of the company’s current and past performance, trends in performance, goals to reach, and progress made toward those goals.
– Motivate your team on different levels by showing metrics for the company, different departments or even individuals
– Including calls-to-action in messages.
6 Provide channels for feedback and ideas
We’ve already mentioned that communication is a two-way process and this should be a key consideration in your strategy:
– Feedback is vital to any company’s survival and success. This includes feedback from customers, of course, but also employee feedback.
– Provide channels for your team to give feedback and share ideas, whether it’s regarding the workplace, the current product, potential future products or the company as a whole. It could be a company forum, a designated channel within your company chat software, a whiteboard in the office or a cloud-based service.
– Without these channels, brilliant ideas and helpful criticisms can be missed, which no company should afford to lose.
7 Encourage cross-departmental communication and collaboration
The bigger the company the bigger the communication challenges. Whilst some companies struggle with top to bottom communication others find it difficult for different departments to work together. The clearer the lines of communication the better the overall working of the business.
– Encourage cross-departmental working groups and focus groups
– Encourage team leaders to share their work and results with the rest of the company
– Reward individuals or teams for certain accomplishments
8 Maintain transparency
Don’t try to bury bad news or keep your results hidden. Your employees are part of your team and can provide solutions to your challenges and can also pull together to improve the performance of the company if they know what the business needs.
9 Use internal communications to recognise and praise success
A 2012 survey by the American Psychological Association found that employees who feel valued report “higher levels of engagement, satisfaction, and motivation,” so it’s definitely something worth investing in.
It can be as simple as announcing individual or departmental successes through your chat software, internal newsletter or other channels. This best practice is beneficial not just for employee morale but also for your company’s productivity and growth.
10 Create a customer-centric team with personas
Encourage your team to have a great understanding of your external stakeholders such as customers and suppliers. Help them to understand their role in the process, the benefits of your products to them or their business and to relate to your customers in a greater and deeper way.
– Bring your customers to life
– Create “profiles of typical customers develop avatars of your ideal customer so that they can identify who they are targeting.
– Help them to become vivid, tangible and top of mind.” Share these personas frequently with your team – in conversations, newsletters, or even using digital signage in your offices.
To summarise:
Your internal customers are as important as your external ones. Employee engagement and internal comms is critical to your business success in terms of both recruiting and retaining the best staff and also building your reputation and sales. It’s not a one-off activity but a long-term strategy of effective engagement.
