Many companies are interested in fostering internal engagement but don’t know how to begin or what resources are available. Employee engagement is less about hiring skilled people and more about attracting high-value individuals, training them well, keeping them around, and showing appreciation for the value they bring to an organization. The reality is that marketing can positively impact team engagement should be of interest to any company interested in hiring and retaining top talent.
How Engaged Are Your Employees?
Trying to determine whether or not your employees are engaged can be as simple as asking them. If you share concerns about low levels of engagement, ask managers and other team leaders around the organization to respond confidentially to a survey question or two regarding their sense of engagement at work. Business resources suggest that organizations ask employees whether they feel listened to, valued, and motivated to contribute their ideas.
Likewise, an alternative question to ask your team could be: ‘do you look forward to coming in each day?’ A high percentage of ‘no’ answers to either of these questions reveals a lack of engagement among your employees.
If your company does not already assess team member engagement through surveys, it is critical to acknowledge that this must change if you are serious about increasing team engagement levels. You have identified the problem—low levels of engagement in your workforce—so now it’s time to take action.
What Can Marketing Do?
Managers can use marketing tactics for more than just attracting customers or achieving retention goals. The same strategies that bring new customers into the fold can also keep employees engaged.
Perhaps one of the simplest ways to improve employee engagement is by paying attention to the needs and interests of your staff so you can better cater to them and their preferences. Companies need to recognize what each member wants and give it to them.
Marketing initiatives with a specific audience may be used to increase engagement among current staff members and potential new hires. With the right combination of actionable tactics and authentic messaging, your company’s brand will stand out from the competition and attract talented people looking for work at similarly engaged companies: an internal branding success story that’s also a recruitment and retention win.
If you’re looking for powerful ways to improve employee engagement or simply want to drive more value from your marketing efforts, here are specific ways in which managers can foster better internal morale within an organization through effective marketing:
1. Create A Unique Company Culture
Marketing is about creating a unique brand, and one of the most successful ways to do this is through company culture. The best way to create a distinct brand identity is by highlighting the qualities that make your organization unique within your industry. You can grow an engaged workforce by expressing what makes your company unique in mission, philosophy, values, vision, and other top-of-mind topics.
The company culture engages employees rather than just through job titles. Engaged teams are more likely to be open with ideas and suggestions for improvement, provide feedback on current processes, suggest new initiatives or goals, promote the brand externally and help manage social media accounts.
Ideally, company culture is built around shared values. To foster a sense of belonging, employees must know that they are valued as individuals and as members of a unique team within your organization. It includes being treated with respect from day one, knowing that their opinions matter, and feeling secure enough in their roles to have confidence in the company’s future.
2. Leverage Technology To Boost Teamwork And Communication
Another effective marketing technique to boost internal engagement is making it easy for employees to connect and brand management on social media. The more comfortable your company culture makes people feel, the longer they stay and work for you, the better their overall attitude toward the organization will be.
Many tools are available for managers and teams to manage digital content that encourages open dialogue, better connections between management and employees and promotes leadership skills. It could be as simple as using company message boards or digital ‘halls’ to create engagement between different departments or as involved as creating separate social media accounts for individual projects.
Furthermore, many communication and collaboration tools boost employee group interaction and communication. It includes everything from a social intranet to integrated communication platforms with project management capabilities.
3. Inspire Your Teams To Be Content Creators
Many businesses understand the importance of having an active social media presence, but they might not use their social media profiles to inspire employee engagement. For example, you can use your Facebook page or Twitter feed to provide updates on what’s happening in your organization at all levels.
Likewise, you can encourage employees to share content that they feel best represents the brand throughout your company. It could include images, blog posts, or videos that convey their passion for working with your organization.
This type of participative content marketing is valuable to potential customers, builds engagement between different company levels, and boosts employee morale.
For example, you could create one account for all your updates instead of having separate accounts for company news and employee stories. Employees can post on this page using their accounts rather than sign up for another social media presence they don’t want or need.
4. Maximize Varied Resources To Train Your Staff
Aside from technology, consider investing in new training resources for your employees to help them do their jobs better. It might take the form of eBooks, online seminars, or local workshops that promote engagement by demonstrating how employees fit into company objectives.
For example, you can show employees how their actions impact the company’s bottom line through a series of online training modules. Likewise, you can show how company culture plays a role in your bottom line through more informal training sessions.
Managers can use different types of training to engage employees, including online and offline. Depending on the nature of your business, you might want to provide more face-to-face training sessions for specific roles within your organization while providing more digital experiences for other departments.
5. Create A Digital Standard
In addition to making it simpler for your employees to interact internally and with the outside world, consider defining a ‘digital standard’ that outlines what everyone who works there is expected to do. What will they find on your website or social media profiles if anyone wants to know more about your organization from an external perspective?
Use this digital standard to manage employee engagement by encouraging employees to share information that encourages people to get in touch for jobs. Similarly, you can manage external perception by helping them see how valuable everyone’s contribution is within the company.
For example, it’s always a good idea to share company goals and highlight examples of how employees throughout your organization are helping those goals move forward. It might include individual employees who have made progress toward those goals through their unique contributions.
6. Employ Better Data Analytics
In addition to technology, businesses can also improve employee engagement by using analytics software that helps them identify areas for improvement. While everyone in your organization should contribute to your business’s ‘bottom line’ benefit, this might not be happening consistently throughout the organization. Some departments and individuals could be working harder than others.
Analytic software helps leaders within your organization identify where efforts are being made and where improvements can be made to individual processes. For example, you can use analytics to help management leaders see where employees spend most of their time throughout the day. It’ll help them determine how much work is being done for each hour worked and whether or not everyone is utilizing company resources at an appropriate level.
Conversely, you can also use data analytics to identify opportunities for efficiency improvement, which could also impact the bottom line for your company. These might include changes in staffing levels, which can be crucial throughout periods of growth or contraction within your organization.
7. Illustrate The Future Direction
Lastly, to create the best possible future for your organization, it’s vital to communicate how employees fit into this future. If you’re a leader within an organization, consider creating a comprehensive plan that describes where you want your business to be in five years. Now, break down this road map into separate strategic plans with individual milestones and objectives that will get you closer to this future.
These plans should include specific goals and objectives that will be achieved over the next year while also including the more significant milestones that each department needs to make to reach its individual five-year goal. Once you have your road map created, share it with your employees along with a clear timeline for when specific milestones need to be achieved. It’ll help them see where they fit into what the future might look like for your organization and how their efforts can impact that future.
Closing Thoughts
When it comes to managing people, there are many ways marketing initiatives can help boost employee engagement. The best practices depend primarily on your company’s goals, what resources are available to you, and what unique qualities your organization offers to its employees.
Employee engagement is not a one-size-fits-all process, as every member works differently as part of one larger team. These seven tips should give you an idea of how to manage this process as an organization so that everyone can feel confident and inspired about how they fit into your company’s success.
