The Unspoken Key to Engagement - Reimagining Employee Communications
Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Slack, as well as many more virtual connection tools were readily available before a worldwide pandemic forced us to use them. While they were available, they were not a primary form of communicating. And today? Virtually (pun intended) every organization is using at least some form of these virtual workplace tools. It is obvious times have changed, and with that change, how we communicate has changed. And there's no going back. Nor should we.
Communication tools and how we communicate has been evolving, however our current environment has forced us to adapt rapidly in a way most of us were unaccustomed to and most likely never thought possible. So while our environment has gone 'all-in', it's time for us to go 'all-in' as well. In next week's episode we will dive into the 'why' and 'how' of this new communication landscape we must embrace, but today we want to focus on the 'what'.
What do our employees want from us, and now except from us? What does it look like today? And what will it look like moving forward?
In the past, quarterly or annual townhalls or all-employee meetings as well as the occassional employee email blasts were the primary internal corporate communication tools. However, in today’s organizations employees want and expect more from their organizations. Now people want near real-time information delivered in different ways and formats. You may have been able to hold this trend off a little while longer, but the pandemic effect has arrived and waiting will only lead to disengagement throughout an organization. And not only should senior leadership be updating the employee population about the company, but employees and teams, more than ever before, should be communicating with one another on an ongoing basis. Engaged employees are your best advocates for increasing employee engagement and letting them share their insights and stories is a great way to enable those engaged behaviors.
Constantly engaging your employees through audiocasts, blogs, videos, interactive explainers and short surveys, as well as enabling and encouraging (creating the right environment) for the employee population to communicate with each other in these same unique and engaging formats builds and sustains employee engagement throughout an organization and at levels only few organizations attain.
As we mentioned at the beginning, come back next week to learn the 'why' and 'how' to adapt to and attain this top-tier engagement through communication.
To discover more about employee communication and what Cornerstone Learning can do for you, visit our communication page at www.cornerstonelearning.com/engagement-communication.