Ensuring that employees are engaged from day one isn’t just important for retention and morale, it can also have a big impact on your marketing spend and reach. Implementing systems and processes to measure and understand employee engagement is vital, especially with millennials wanting their work to be fun, meaningful and an opportunity for them to develop their skill set with the backing of employers.
Along with customers, employees are right up there in terms of what keeps a business running smoothly and successfully. Without employees and customers there would be no business at all. For a business to run like a well-oiled machine these employees must be engaged, motivated, and inspired to create their best work for the business, every day.
There are some fundamental areas that all employees look for when starting a new role like salary, healthcare, location and the general office environment. However, something that is becoming increasingly important is engagement and personal impact. A millennials perfect job may differ to others in that they want to feel like their efforts are making a positive impact and are worthwhile. It’s become less about the pay check and salary and more about ‘Is this job going to help me make a difference in the world?’
Larger organizations tend to find it more difficult to engage employees due to their size. It can be difficult to create an environment where 1,000 employees are fully engaged, let alone 10,000 or more. Tactics such as becoming a B Corporation can help as it shows the company is committed to an idea or set of values that employees also feel part of. However, most organizations don’t find the ethical or tactical aspects a challenge, it’s the communication of these values to employees and understanding whether or not these tactics are making a difference to employee engagement.
To overcome this communication gap, businesses are investing in employee engagement software. According to Inpulse engagement software, employee engagement can be measured and tracked much like customer engagement. This data driven approach where information is collected through surveys and message boards can be used to identify areas where a business is falling short and even highlight which departments moral and engagement could be low. Understanding this information is vital in creating a program to retain good employees and ensuring that new starters are engaged from day one.
High levels of employee engagement can have a knock-on effect on other business efforts such as marketing. If employees are engaged at work, know what the company is trying to achieve and have really bought into the core values and ethos they are much more likely to express this in their personal life. This is especially true if the values of the company align with their own personal values.
For example, if a company were to sell cruelty free cosmetics and has an engaged employee base of 5,000 workers who all chose to work for the business because they are passionate about ending animal testing in the cosmetics industry. The likelihood is that the people they associate with outside of work share some of the same values too. The potential for marketing to their friends for free is a huge opportunity.
On average, people have around 250 Facebook friends, so if your employees are engaged with your brand and are regularly sharing content because they love what you stand for, you've just increased your social media reach by hundreds of thousands without spending a cent on advertising. Although this figure will be different for different businesses it demonstrates the impact employee engagement can have on the wider business environment and customers.
