Creative and innovative means for employee engagement dynamism
Employee engagement at workplace has many facets like Organisation culture , employee appreciation framework, HR policies , Employee – Boss or peer to peer relationships, engagement calendar etc, but one thing that would be critically common to all is how effectively , innovatively and consistently an organisation communicates around all above facets with employees. Employee communication is oxygen to employee engagement which can boost up a simple initiative to deliver results and if not done properly can flatten up even a great employee friendly policy.
Nowadays, everyone has the option to consume rich content in so many ways. This mandates employee communication to be creative , crisp and should be presented through innovative means to be really effective. Here’s sharing some of the innovative means through you can communicate your employee engagement initiatives :
Games
The affinity for gaming can be seen across all age groups and more dominantly in Gen X, Y & Z age group , forming a majority share of today’s workforce. Be it web enabled , mobile based or traditional board games format , gaming provides an experiential way to engage employees on any topic. Customised games are developed on values / vision / mission cascading , policies roll out or even for fun@workplace. Escape room on value cascading , Board games on HR policies , Quizzing on organisation initiatives , virtual painting on One vision etc are some of the popular gaming format options used by organisations to innovatively engage employees. Engagement through games is much easier to scale up to cover employee base across smaller cities or even beyond the shores of India.
Mobile Apps
Every organisation is embracing HR Tech in its own way. This has also led to emergence of new age apps focusing specially on a particular field of employee engagement like employee communication , R&R , Health & Wellness , Grievances ,concierge services, employee engagement activities , e-learning etc.. Organisations spend a lot of effort to develop these apps , making them content rich. To make it a success it’s very important for these apps to stand out from the crowd , to not only be downloaded by employees but should be used regularly to get benefitted.
Radio
Though a very traditional method , its effectiveness remains intact to engage employees around key agenda items. Innovative modules like roping in celebrity RJs , Leadership podcasts , Jingles by celebrity singers , Organization Anthems , employee chat shows etc make this medium very interesting and fresh for employees. The biggest advantage of this medium is that it can reach people even during their non-working time like in cafeterias , office gyms , office transports , events , webinars etc … Many leading organisations run their dedicated radio stations which are moderated by their in-house teams.
Wall Graphics
Let your office walls speak the message you want to convey to your employees. Wall Graphics are effectively used to convey messages which are specific to the overall organisation priorities or according to the relevance of the place .. e.g. Walls around workstation area are used about importance of management principles , employee motivation , client relationship etc , Reception area could be about Organization journey , Vision / Mission , while Gym / cafeteria could be about healthy eating , wellness etc . Well thought campaign with visually rich & informative wall graphics can very well do a very efficient job in keeping your employees engaged & informed with Organization priorities.
Newsletters
This medium has existed since long and every time it keeps innovating itself to stay as the preferred mode of employee communication & engagement. With soo many things happening , it gets difficult to share it with employees on a daily basis. A monthly newsletter summarizing key highlights of the Organization performance , leadership address , employee section , wishes , funny bytes etc is powerful package to keep evenly remotely working employees engaged and informed. With the introduction of apps / software methods , newsletters are generally circulated online and can reach everyone in the Organization. The inclusivity aspect get further enhanced as content contribution is done by all departments of the Organization.
Stories/ Short videos
The introduction of stories / short video format content sharing has made this medium the most important thing for employee engagement and communication. It is highly popular with today’s generation who likes to create & share more and more casual content. This liking should be used to cascade Employee engagement initiatives with short stories contributed by Employees. Adding features like liking / sharing also give a boost to employees to contribute more and more.
Screen based communication
This medium is used to push key initiatives/ weekly priorities etc to employees. This acts as a good support to overall employee engagement and communication initiatives undertaken around a particular agenda.
Office Items
Elements like lanyards, t-shirts / cafeteria table tops / dangles / wobblers / mouse pads etc can be effectively used to reinforce a particular msg / behavior or theme to the employees.
Events
Virtual employee engagement events / Townhall / Sales meets / Workshops / Annual engagement calendar are great way to engage employees and also do direct communication with them. Nothing can beat the excitement & effectiveness of events / engagement activities. These can be customised as per the messaging to be established / context to be covered / or experience to be shared.
SMS
Broadcast SMS or WhatsApp services are used to keep employees informed and updated with short messages. These are efficiently used to keep employees engaged around upcoming events or employee engagement activities , poll / survey deadlines , motivational quotes , reminders etc.
While the above highlights some trending media mix for employee engagement. This list keeps getting evolved with the tech adaptation or new things coming in our social ecosystem . So any Organisation needs to be agile in adopting a new media mix so that its employee engagement and communication initiatives keep employees interested. To know more about how to implement theses effectively do reach out to us on www.engage4more.com.
