How To Create Content For Employee Engagement

It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change – Charles Darwin

Darwin might not have quoted the above line with respect to business, but his words seem to echo in the business world, now more than ever. And managing people is no exception.

Employee engagement is a very abstract concept. It is the "emotional connect" that an employee feels towards its organization. What makes one feel connected to an organization and motivates to deliver her/his best varies from person to person. It also changes with respect to what is happening in and around the world.

Employee engagement is the level of commitment and involvement an employee has towards their organization and its values. An engaged employee is aware of business context, and works with colleagues to improve performance within the job for the benefit of the organization. It is a positive attitude held by the employees towards the organization and its values. The paper focuses on how employee engagement is an antecedent of job involvement and what should company do to make the employees engaged.

Organizations have come to realize that in today's constantly changing business scenario, the most valuable resource that needs to be leveraged is human resource. This means not just attracting the crème-de-la-crème and retaining them but keeping them motivated and committed to achieving the organization goals.

The dedication and seriousness of engaged employees reflect in their work and their output is far more than those who come to office to enjoy and earn money. You do not have to give repeated reminders to such employees and in fact they themselves take the initiative of finishing assignments and submitting the same on or before time.

Employees fully involved in their work seldom have the time to badmouth their organization or participate in office politics. They hardly have any interest in what their competitors are up to and stay away from unproductive activities. Engaged employees contribute to a healthy work culture which eventually lead to success of the organization in the long run. Such employees take pride in representing their organization and always think in its favor. For them, success of their organization matters the most. They not only respect their superiors but also strive hard to fulfil organization's goals and objectives. Employees who are fully involved in their work think of neither quitting their organization once they are fully trained nor revealing confidential information to competitors.

Engaged employees are more or less satisfied with their job and also have a strong faith in their organization and its policies. There are people who get easily carried away by false promises made by competitors and start betraying their own colleagues and superiors. This is in fact the most dangerous thing for an organization. Employees who are happy with their work seldom indulge in such activities and utilize all their energies in doing productive work for the organization.

Employees who are happy with their jobs play a crucial role in creating a positive brand image of their organization. They praise their bosses even behind their backs and also look forward to supporting them and working in unison. Such employees are most of the times self-motivated and also encourage others to remain positive and work happily for the organization without cribbing and complaining. Selfish interests need to take a back seat for your organization to do well. Employees who are involved in their work do not have the time to interfere in other's personal life and avoid getting into unnecessary fights and conflicts. They seldom are a part of activities which would not only earn a bad name for them but also their organization. They are happy when their organization generates revenues and makes profits.

When developing a content marketing strategy for your business, you probably put a lot of thought into your goals, audience, content channels, and the types of content you will produce. But many businesses overlook one of the most effective strategies: engaging their employees and turning them into employee advocates.

Quick Takeaways:

• Employees can be the source of high-quality content that is also the most effective in connecting with your audience.
• Some employees can double up as "influencers" for your brand if you groom them right.
• Encourage employees to create content to voice their opinions as well as engage customers.

Employee Engagement and Content Marketing

Most managers and business owners understand how important employee engagement is to the success of their business.

Employees who are actively engaged at work are over 20% more profitable due to reduced absenteeism and staff turnover, as per a Gallup report. The more you can engage your employees, the more productive they are, and engaged employees make happier teams that work better together.

All this is great stuff but what exactly does it have to do with content marketing?

The answer is that engaged employees can be the source of some of your most effective content for marketing purposes. Empowering and encouraging your employees to produce content is a way to turn every member of your team, at any level, into an effective salesperson.

You see, employees are so much more than the people who show up to work every day. They're the people with front-line information on your company. How they feel and what they have to say about your business is everything — and your customers are listening. These people aren't just representing your brand; as far as consumers are concerned, they are your brand.

The link between employee engagement and customer experience

The link between employee engagement and the customer experience is well documented, having been the topic of studies, online questionnaires and surveys found at the end of your printed shopping receipt. Engaged employees are not only more productive, but their approach to customer service is beyond compare. A benchmark study from Loyalty 360 reported that on average companies saw customer retention rates up 18 percentage points, as well as a significant impact on profit margins when employees were highly engaged.

Furthermore, a study from the Forum for People Performance Management and Measurement found that a ten percent increase in the extent to which employees tried to satisfy customers translated into a 22.7 percent increase in total consumer spending. Finally, the 2016 Edelman Trust Barometer found that customers trust what an employee has to say far more than they trust marketing messages or company spokespeople. Employee engagement and advocacy inspires consumer trust, which consequently, drives sales.

Where marketing comes into the equation

Most companies spend the majority of their time and money on external marketing. However, internal marketing is just as important. An internal marketing campaign focused on employee engagement strategies proves its worth when considering the indisputable relationship between employee engagement and customer spend. The truth is, the more you invest in your employees, the more likely it is they'll end up doing the marketing for you.

How to succeed in creating engaged employees

Improving employee engagement levels across the company is incredibly important, as even those who aren't customer-facing can affect customer profitability. What's more, employee engagement can save money in other areas as well. Highly engaged employees are more productive, take fewer days off and are more likely to stay with a company for an extended period of time.

According to Marketing & Communication Manager, "Few concerns of the HR department are as important to the C-suite as employee retention. Maintaining high retention rates requires an enterprise-wide investment in increasing employee engagement and satisfaction."

It's important to note that there is a difference between a satisfied employee and an engaged one. A satisfied employee is reasonably happy with their job; they come to work, they meet their responsibilities, and they go home. An engaged employee is passionate about their work; always willing to go above and beyond their normal duties for the greater good of the company. Engaged employees are the creators, innovators and the ones most likely to impress customers.

The best way to create engaged employees is to focus on communication, recognition and trust.

Communication

Simply put, internal communication should be seen as an investment in the company's health. Gathering feedback from employees should be an integral part of the company culture. This feedback should become a conversation, a chance to share with employees just how their insight is forging change within the company. Without this crucial step, employees will quickly lose confidence and refuse to communicate in the future.

Communication isn't just relegated to employee feedback forms. Conversations between employees and managers are equally important. Modern workers aren't looking to be ruled by managers who spit out directives. They want mentors — coaches they can share ideas and obstacles with. They thrive on one-on-one communication that allows them to identify both strengths and weaknesses. Good managers need to be in touch with every employee and connecting on a regular basis.

Recognition

If you want productive, loyal, and truly engaged employees, you need to make sure they feel their contribution to the company is respected. That means every single employee should be awarded for their accomplishments. A reward can be as simple as a thank you card or as complex as a bonus — the point is to recognize their hard work. When you show employees that their work is acknowledged, they're bound to continue giving it their all. Ignore their efforts, and they'll eventually start doing the bare minimum required to keep their job.

Trust

Trust is hard earned and easily lost among employees. Broken promises, lack of transparency, shifting blame, frequent lay-offs, an absence of accountability, constant changes, temporary fixes — all are a recipe for disengaged and disgruntled employees. If leadership wants to empower and engage their employees, they have to stop regarding them as human capital and start treating them as individuals. Leadership's greatest role is not to give orders, but to provide guidelines, and leave room for interpretation. Trust leads to innovation, new ways to delight customers, and higher profit margins.

Trust is built by caring for the health and wellbeing of employees. Keep an eye on the stress levels within the office — stressed employees are not engaged employees. Some of the leading causes of stress in the office include heavy workload, interpersonal issues, poor work/life balance, and lack of job security. Though eradicating all sources of workplace stress is impossible, you can still establish a procedure for employees to get help with stress when necessary. Furthermore, you can keep employees from being overcome by stress by encouraging frequent breaks, engaging in team bonding exercises, allowing flexible schedules, and above all, leading by example. If you show up at the crack of dawn, stay late into the night, and eat lunch at your desk, employees are bound to do the same.

Employee Advocates are the New Influencers

This is not sharing press releases people! Influencer marketing has already reached its peak and may be on a downward spiral. Using influencers with a large and dedicated following to share information and productions has been a highly effective marketing technique for several years. But consumers are starting to realize that influencers aren't always as trustworthy as they may seem, and influencer marketing is suffering as a result.

Influencer marketing can produce a strong ROI, but only when done carefully. Research by influencer marketplace Thompson shows that 70% of companies earn $2 or more for every dollar spent. However, 18% of businesses see no return on investment at all.

The main reason for this failure is choosing influencers that are a poor fit for the business. Getting a celebrity with 5 million followers to advertise your business or product might seem like a great idea at first. But if that individual has earned a reputation of taking every brand collaboration that comes their way, and promoting random products and services in every post, the trust and effectiveness of their message is greatly reduced.

Some brands are getting around this issue by investing in "micro-influencers" with a smaller following and selecting only those who are a great fit for the brand. But there is another type of influencer marketing that can be even more effective, especially in a B2B context.

Employee advocacy means using your own employees as spokespeople to promote your brand's message to the outside world.

There's nobody that knows your business and your brand better than the people who work within it every day. That's why employee-produced content can be some of the most authentic and engaging you'll ever publish.

Using your employees to create and share content puts a human face on your brand that is so much more likable and compelling than a generic, faceless corporation. Brand messages are shared 24x more when they're distributed by the company's employees rather than the brand itself, as per a GMA report.

Distributing content via your employees' social media channels also means you'll benefit from a much wider reach than your official brand channels only. And as individuals only share content they're personally interested in and agree with on their personal channels, you'll achieve better engagement and a more authentic voice.

Implementing an Employee Advocacy Program

So how should you get your employees involved in your content marketing efforts in a practical sense?

Start with employee engagement. There's simply no way that employee advocacy will be successful if your workforce isn't engaged. Your employees must truly believe in the mission and value of your organization and want to contribute to the success of your business.

Make it easy for employees to share brand content on their own social media channels, and actively encourage this process. You can do this by highlighting content in your company newsletter and intranet, providing instant share links, and suggesting possible hashtags to be included alongside the content itself.

As well as encouraging employees to share content, actively involve them in its production. Rather than just using dedicated content producers, invite your employees to share their successes and write about their projects and areas of interest.

This employee-generated content not only aids your content marketing efforts, but it also makes your team feel that their opinions are valued. This, in turn, leads to better employee engagement in a positive feedback loop.

For example, Starbucks refers to its employees as "partners" in its brand social media guidelines, encouraging every employee to "Share your passion. We're called partners, because this isn't just a job, it's our passion. So, go ahead and share it!"

Use Content Marketing to Engage Your Employees

This principle works in the opposite direction too. Your internal communication can be an effective way to engage your employees and make them feel like a valued part of your company.

When considering internal content marketing, focus on producing informational, educational content that will empower your employees to be more effective in their roles and assist in career progression.

Internal content should also be easy to access and digest. Make sure there's time built into the working day to actually explore the information available on your company intranet and split the content into bite-size pieces so your employees can dip in and out between other work tasks.

Experiment with different formats too – videos and interactive content can work particularly well with educational content.

As well as educating your employees, you want to use content as an opportunity to remind them of your company mission and values. Share news about your goals and achievements as an organization, and include details of any charitable initiatives and how you're working with the community in your internal newsletters.

Inspire and engage each individual with interviews and life stories of successful people within your organization. This not only helps your employees to learn more about the people they work with, but it also shows how each person has the opportunity to progress his or her career within the company.

Internal marketing builds an army of brand advocates

When employees are rewarded for their work, attached to their colleagues, understand and support the company mission, and are truly proud of how their company is run, they become advocates. Go ahead and gather input from your most engaged advocates, use your findings to bolster your marketing goals, develop a blueprint for success and then take action. And when your employees are advocates, your customers — and subsequently your business — end up winning.

These are just some ideas on how you can use internal content marketing to engage your employees. Make sure you're not investing so much effort in marketing externally that you forget about the value of marketing to your own employees.

Like | Comment | Share | Follow

How To Create Content For Employee Engagement

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/new-content-marketing-strategy-employee-engagement-helps-trivedi

Posted by: kennedyliaboarpood.blogspot.com

Share this post