Half of employees now communicating via social media…but a third of companies don’t listen to their staff.
Nearly half of employers currently communicate through Facebook, instant messaging, and Twitter, but senior executives are still reticent about embracing these social media tools to help gauge employee engagement in the workplace. Compounding the problem, almost a third of companies rarely or never conduct employee listening exercises—this according to the second Employee Engagement Survey jointly conducted by Buck Consultants and the IABC Research Foundation.
The survey of just under 900 communication professionals from a broad range of industries and geographic bases was aimed at finding out how organisations are communicating with employees to keep them engaged and productive. “This year's respondents reported slight increases in use of social media tools, and more of them say they have established internal and external policies for appropriate workplace use of social media,” said Robin McCasland, former Chair, IABC Research Foundation. He added, “When managed effectively, social media can be a great addition to an existing employee engagement strategy. Employees and job candidates alike can read employer news and anecdotes that reinforce a strong, positive culture.”
The survey found the most common communication vehicles organisations use to engage employees and foster productivity are e-mail, 83% and intranet, 75%. It also measured practices for creating and sustaining a culture of engagement in organisations, key findings are highlighted below.
Key findings from employee engagement survey
Goals for engaging employees
- Increasing productivity (66%) and retaining top talent (65%) were the most important goals employers cite to keep employees engaged.
- Other important goals identified by survey respondents were increasing employee morale (59%) and creating a new culture or work environment (52%).
Sustaining an engaged work culture
- 32% of survey respondents indicated that their organisations rarely or never conduct employee listening activities.
- For those that do, publishing a formal list of values (74%) and using exit interviews with managers (73%) were the most common practices adopted to sustain an engaging work culture.
- Other practices included: regularly surveying the workforce on engagement and work satisfaction (60%), inclusion of material on the organization’s culture in new hire orientation (56%), and involving senior leadership in orientation programmes (54%).
Measuring effectiveness
- Formal or informal employee feedback (77%) was the most common way organisations measured the effectiveness of their employee engagement strategies.
- Other methods included meeting annual company performance goals (48%) and measuring employee retention rates (42%).
Utilisation of social media
- Most top executives do not participate in internal (60%) or external (62%) social media.
- Fewer than half the organisations surveyed have policies in place to address employee use of internal and external social media.
- Approximately half the organisations surveyed do not measure the effectiveness of internal and external social media.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
