With all of the new media tools at their disposal, organizations have more opportunities and face more challenges in engaging their employees than ever before. Engaged employees are valuable, as they care more about their company and are more likely to see their work as an investment rather than simply a “job”. This can lead to increased employee loyalty, commitment and productivity. A new survey of employee engagement practices reveals some interesting statistics about the tools that businesses are harnessing – and the ones they are overlooking – in order to engage their employees.
The International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Research Foundation and Buck Consultants jointly released the second annual Employee Engagement Survey, which saw over 900 communications professionals from a variety of industry and geographical locations participate. Interestingly, the survey reveals that social media is being used by employees, but not necessarily the top executives at a majority of businesses – indicating that many organizations may be a bit slow on the uptake of what employees are really looking for.
E-mail reigns supreme when it comes to the communication tool of choice to engage employees. 83 percent of respondents named email as the number one engagement tool, with the company’s own intranet taking second place with 75 percent.
Social media pales in comparison. The majority of top executives at the businesses surveyed do not participate in internal (60 percent) or external (62 percent) social media. And less than half of the businesses have policies that directly address employee use of social media.
These numbers tell us something about the disagreement between what business offer and what employees want when it comes to communication tools. With the majority of employees using some form of social media, it stands to reason that their employers would want to embrace this new tool and encourage increased communication between executives and employees. However, judging by the relatively high number of organizations that do not perform any employee “listening activity” (32 percent) – such as employee satisfaction surveys and interviews – the lack of robust social media usage might be understandable. If companies are not listening to their employees, they’re not likely to respond to their needs.
However, this year’s survey shows more companies that are experimenting with social media to engage their employees than the previous survey. Robin McCasland, past chair, IABC Research Foundation and president, Brain Biscuits Strategic Communication, comments on the survey’s findings about the use of social media to engage employees:
“This year’s respondents reported slight increases in use of social media tools, and more of them say they have established internal and external policies for appropriate workplace use of social media. When managed effectively, social media can be a great addition to an existing employee engagement strategy. Employees and job candidates alike can read employer news and anecdotes that reinforce a strong, positive culture.”
