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Employee Engagement

With employees placing more and more emphasis on the work/life balance, keeping them happy and engaged has become a necessity. The good news is that content, productive, and energized employees are the secret to improving customer experience.

But how exactly does it work? When employees are happy, it sparks a culture of innovation, which drives increased efficiency and greater customer satisfaction. At Unily, we understand the vital role our internal communications software plays in raising employee engagement in the workplace, especially in the ever-evolving digital working world.

Employee engagement resources

What is employee engagement?

Employee engagement is about how much motivation, commitment, and emotional investment employees have in their work and the goals of the wider company. Utilizing an employee engagement strategy forms a large part of creating a positive working environment where employees are more engaged.

A successful strategy harnesses the power of multichannel communications. You can tailor your approach to specific audience segments and bolster it with rock-solid technical architecture. The objective is to seamlessly weave a tapestry of engagement initiatives that captivate and connect every team member.

Employee engagement vs. employee experience

Alongside employee engagement, you may have also heard the phrase, employee experience. Essentially, this represents all the interactions employees have within the digital and physical workplace. Not only does it refer to the tools they are given to accomplish their job (and how well these are suited to it), but it also encapsulates the day-to-day interactions they share with their colleagues and much more. It is about creating an enjoyable working ecosystem where employees genuinely want to work.

Employee engagement forms a crucial part of the employee experience. It involves employers shifting the focus away from productivity and utility as the main indicators of results, and towards providing employees with a workplace that benefits them.

The most important thing to recognize is that engagement is a two-way commitment. It starts with employers setting their workforce employee engagement goals, that their employees can achieve by utilizing the right strategy and technology. These targets can help put employees on the path to success - employee engagement software can also take their engagement to new heights.

What is employee engagement software?

Employee engagement software refers to a suite of digital tools and applications designed, in part, to foster an organizational culture of engagement. Intranets and other internal communications software are two such examples that utilize many different features and tools to improve staff engagement throughout the employee journey.

It goes beyond traditional HR solutions by providing innovative ways to connect, motivate, and empower employees, through the use of digital programs.

In turn, this bolsters retention strategies and creates a working environment centered around community and a feeling of belonging. Employee engagement software can also improve staff engagement by:

  • Amplifying employees’ voices through personalizable profiles and social feeds
  • Rewarding and recognizing their contributions with digital badges and awards
  • Providing feedback and surveys to employees, demonstrating that employers are listening to their concerns
  • Allowing frequent, easy collaboration between employees and teams through the use of social networking features
  • Providing the means to improve productivity, making employee goals much more achievable
  • Optimizing the onboarding process by offering all materials in one central location
  • Quickly assessing how employees feel about their company with pulse surveys

There are several features that great employee engagement software provides. At their core, they should ensure employees feel like a valued part of their company, rather than a simple cog in the machine.

  • Gamification: foster collaboration and participation from the onset, with an enterprise intranet that offers voting, polls, reactions, badges, and more, further celebrating employee contributions. While online games for employee engagement may be impractical to implement in most companies, simple gamification techniques like voting systems on social posts can create a hub of idea creation.
  • Feedback that matters: incentivize healthy peer-to-peer competition with polls and leaderboards that allow employees to really feel like a member of a community. Combined with employee feedback from company leaders in the form of digital badges and awards, brand values can become aspirations and goals.
  • Better communication: software that keeps digital accessibility and employees' needs at the forefront is better able to provide open channels of communication. Real-time translations, as offered by Unily, mean any employee can communicate closely and effectively with their peers and business leaders, regardless of where they are in the world. Clear, open dialogue is necessary for employees to feel like their voice matters.

Why is employee engagement important for your enterprise?

The most obvious benefit of employee engagement is that happier employees work harder. Hard-working employees are more likely to achieve their goals and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), which will lead to them feeling more accomplished in their work. In turn, this can translate to an increased sense of loyalty toward their company. Companies should capitalize on this for effective talent retention. 

Any enterprise can benefit from employee engagement software and platforms, like intranets, that improve retention strategies. Doing so might help save them from becoming one of the many US businesses losing trillions of dollars in lost revenue, every year. Since engaged employees are much more likely to stay at their company, software designed to promote this is incredibly valuable. 

There are several other benefits to improving staff engagement, including: 

1. Enhanced customer satisfaction 

Engaged employees often provide better customer service and strive to exceed customer expectations because they feel more involved with the company. They feel their organization's success is their success. Dedication and a positive attitude contribute to increased customer loyalty and repeat business.

2. Increased innovation and creativity

When employees are engaged, they feel empowered to share their ideas, contribute innovative solutions, and take calculated risks. Intranets can amplify this by providing a  virtual place that acts as a platform for new ideas. This fosters a culture of creativity and innovation, driving the organization forward. 

3. Reduced absenteeism and turnover

If your employees are committed to their work and feel like a real part of the organization, it will lead to reduced absenteeism rates. Turnover rates also become much lower, as employees are far more likely to stay if their contributions are recognized and rewarded. 

4. Stronger teamwork and collaboration 

By utilizing intranet software that allows for social features like personalizable profiles and community channels, employers can promote a sense of camaraderie among their employees. Auto-translations can also ensure every employee can communicate with one another, no matter what language they speak. More connected teams lead to better collaboration, knowledge sharing, and support, promoting a positive working environment. 

Transform your employee engagement today

Employee engagement platforms, built on internal communications software, have the potential to revolutionize employee engagement within every organization. A centralized hub for communication, collaboration, and innovation can create employees who are not only exceptional at their jobs, but also care deeply about the success of their company.

In a world where office buildings are shutting down and home offices are being hastily installed, companies can no longer get by with the occasional “Casual Friday” to raise employee morale. Engaging employees in the workplace takes on an entirely new meaning when the workplace is completely, or even partially, online. This means utilizing platforms, like that offered by Unily, able to adapt to the changing times and make engagement an easily achievable goal. 

Get in touch with our team, and we’ll provide the guidance you need to create engaged employees who want to stick around for years to come. 

Get started. Get your free demo.

Reinvent your intranet for the employee experience era.

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