Over the past three years, the digital workplace has exploded. With many employees preferring hybrid or fully remote work, companies everywhere must decide how to engage team members who may never meet. Compounding this challenge is the fact that while employees must learn to connect with each other in the digital arena, they must also find ways to be engaged with their work.
Live Employee Experience (EX) – defined as the experience created by collecting real-time metrics and making timely decisions to improve the employee experience as soon as possible – is the key to engaging workers through integrated metrics and actionable insights. Recently, I discussed employee engagement trends and the technology that allows companies to gain such insights with Amanda Berry on Cohesion, Simpler’s bimonthly podcast.
Be Proactive With Employee Communication
Traditionally, employee engagement is more reactive than proactive. A company sends out engagement surveys every so often but can only act on any findings after they’ve collected all the data. Reporting on survey results can take months. Organizations may not be able to enact meaningful change until long after an issue has been identified. For a communications challenge to be addressed in time, organizations need access to real-time data.
That’s what live EX offers: the ability to double-down on what organizations are doing well and quickly course correct when issues arise. Organizations can use real-time data and pulse checks to see how employee morale is, as well as to discover what employees find exciting and what their areas of concern are.
Measuring Engagement
Annual employee engagement surveys provide value in recognizing year-over-year trends. Yet companies also require methods for measuring data more regularly – especially if they are intent on improving overall employee engagement. For example, companies can set up prompts that employees receive when they open an important company email. The prompt can include very simple questions such as “Did you read this?” and “Did you understand this information?”. This starts a conversation about which messages engage employees and which confuse them. Additionally, organizations can track what employees are clicking in emails. If they’re regularly not clicking on important links, that could indicate waning engagement.
Data like this can create a rich data set. Ultimately this is all about, “Can we make this a happier workplace by helping measure and then driving action from that?”.
Interestingly, this data may also help companies as they decide whether their workplace will be in-person, digital or hybrid. While many internal communications employees understand that most employees prefer to work from home, leaders aren’t listening. Real-time data could be the catalyst needed to convince leaders that employee’s workplace expectations are changing.
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Creating a More Engaging Intranet
In many organizations, the employee intranet is a static website where people search for information or content they need. But this doesn’t create engagement. Companies with this type of structure use the intranet as a content dumping ground, not as an employee engagement tool.
Elements of an engaging intranet are similar to the functions in many social media platforms, including a strong search function, native video content and easy navigation. Updated feeds of relevant information will help employees feel informed and connected. Engaging intranets deliver better experiences, connection and satisfaction for employees regardless where they’re working from.
An intranet where employees actually find value also helps create culture and community within the workplace. It can help employees get to know one another and reinforce key tenets that define company culture. The best intranets can be integrated with collaboration tools like Slack – creating an ecosystem where tools and platforms are all connected in one convenient place. A strong intranet can help organizations as they work to combat the Great Resignation, improving employee engagement and connection.
Start Adopting Live EX Now
To improve employee engagement and communication with live EX, companies should invest in both the technology and the talent. Without the right people to understand the latest workplace technologies, organizations likely won’t see all the EX improvements they’re looking for. Combining the right skills and modern tools that offer real-time analytics and a rich digital ecosystem, organizations can create better experiences for all their employees.
Be sure to listen to this episode of the Cohesion podcast, where Parag Kulkarni joined host Amanda Berry, corporate communications manager, to discuss live EX, intranets, employee engagement and the personalization of communications.
