25 Sep
How modern intranets are driving employee engagement in the new normal
Remote Work Becomes the Normal
With the current pandemic scenario pouring in and uncertainties around, it might still be a while for the things to get back to normal. It is tricky for organizations to run their business smoothly and to engage with employees as they are working remotely.
Organizations are trying to adjust to this “new normal” and stabilize their operation, as working remotely will remain a predominant factor for several months to come. In this new normal technology has been playing a pivotal role while adhering to the work from the home protocol.
As employees have suddenly started working from home even though they are not used to it, and companies had to find new ways of engaging with their workforce in no time. Organizations are adopting a digital transformation journey, one of the key technical viewpoints in the digital workplace. The modern digital workplace forms the nucleus of workforce dynamics.
The growth investment in organizational dynamics is slowly making a shift towards employees and the cost reductions to counter strike the prevailing uncertainty.
So, the equation of organizational growth and employee engagement stands directly proportional. A contended employee runs the extra mile boosting business growth.
Let’s deep dive to know the importance of Employee Engagement in business growth and productivity
Employee engagement is key to an organization success in new normal
As the pandemic is changing the business landscape, employee engagement in the new normal stands crucial due to the prevailing uncertainty at both ends. By investing in employee engagement, the organization will be able to increase business productivity and work satisfaction.
Employee engagement is at the core of building a successful business. But driving employee engagement doesn’t come easy: According to a Gallup poll, engaged employees are 21% more productive than their less engaged counterparts.
Employee engagement is the emotional attachment and commitment employees feel towards the company, its mission, and its values. So, the equation of organizational growth and employee engagement stands directly proportional. A contended employee runs the extra mile boosting business growth. The more resilient employees are, the more robust the organization will be.
Transforming the group of employees into an engaged workforce is the key to increase performance and achieve sustainable long-term growth.
Modern intranets play a vital role in engaging employees and boost productivity in the modern workplace. It is the heart of company culture and value, where people globally work together and build one centralized team. It works as a complete employee experience hub and one holistic approach for networking and collaboration, communications, relevant information gathering, and quick support, knowledge sharing, social connection, and much more at this crucial work environment across the globe.
Forrester, leading global research, and advisory firm, defines intranet applications as: “A trusted digital source of corporate communication and content designed to educate and empower employees and improve their workplace experiences.”
Here is an interesting stat on the factors which affect success in the digital workplace.
Reasons why employee engagement is important
1. Engaged employees boost productivity
Forbes, Ann Latham explains:
“Engagement is, at best, a symptom of success.”
The pandemic has forced organizations to reevaluate how to work, and how to boost employee performance and success.
Highly engaged teams show greater profitability. In this jarring change, employee engagement is a very important aspect for any organization the more involved or motivated the employees better will be the outcome.
Employees who are succeeding and feeling good about their contributions to the organization are naturally more likely to be proud to work for the organization.
Enhancing the engagement index of your employees by engaging them through challenging work assignments or additional responsibilities would lead to a happier workforce and foster organizational productivity.
2. Employee engagement maximizes customer satisfaction
Engaged employees are a pre-requisite for achieving greater customer experience with widespread result benefits.
Richard Branson says, “Take care of your employees and they will take care of your customers.”
Aberdeen Research report states that “Customer experiences don’t happen in a vacuum. They are the result of employee activities. Businesses that understand the importance of employee engagement and manage it through a formal program to align with their customer experience goals, achieve far superior results.”
The current pandemic crisis is navigating huge transformations in the organization. Changing customer behavior and catalyzing end to end business reorientation. In this perspective, the modern workplace has accelerated organizations to upscale customer experience standards. The traditional method is gone, the opportunity to transform is now the new norm.
3. Employee engagement enhances company culture
Leaders must create a culture in which every employee feels empowered to share their ideas for future innovation.
In Glassdoor’s new mission and culture workplace sentiment survey, they found that over half (58%) of employees and job seekers say company culture is more important than salary when it comes to job satisfaction.
Engaged employees are those who are more satisfied in their work can positively impact culture through daily actions resulting in achievement, recognition, and advancement.
During a crisis, it is very important sticking to the core values and company culture. A culture that is open to various ideas and perspectives unlocks different dimensions gaining a competitive edge.
How are modern intranets driving employee engagement?
1. Communication and collaboration
Internal communication is the glue that holds your business together and it plays an even more critical role in times of crisis, including this pandemic.
As remote work has been the norm, it is challenging for companies to run their internal communications smoothly. Sharing relevant information with the employees helping in executing their daily jobs when distributed globally has been cumbersome for organizations leaders.
According to Survey, “Two out of three employees overlook emails from their employers”.
Whether it is information buried in inboxes or content dump yards, communication lost is productivity/knowledge loss. Use communications platform features to share content, engage with co-workers, customize the interface, features, and more.
An organization with a central information hub surfacing relevant information from all the business apps into the intranet will avoid context switching. It enables people to find relevant information with no trouble. This saves everyone time and enhances productivity within the organizations, which boost employee engagement. It understands natural language phrases and allows smart suggestions and auto-fill based on the user’s past activities and personas, and the keywords and semantics of the stored data.
Enable features like personalized feed, likes, and comments, and forum-style group conversations to make it a more engaging outcome.
Recommended News, Documents, Events, People Connects, etc., will gravitate towards engaging employees.
2. Strengthening the atmosphere of trust
In the times of chaos, trust is the essential vitamin driving the long-term relationship. Organization leaders need to be transparent and realistic in communicating the strategies and vision at this crucial time.
Real-time updates impacting business bring in more trust and importance for employee culture resulting in a more secure ambiance.
With trust in place, organizations can better focus on facing the pandemic crisis with better arms and ammunitions.
Regular communication with the employee that fuels a positive organizational culture can be well executed using an intranet. A message from CEO popping up when employees land on intranets drives it all effortlessly.
3. Do not leave unanswered questions
Employees often tend to have a lot of questions about the transforming landscape and their role in the changing enterprise scenario. Some of the questions might include a pending hike announcement or a when I can .
A gathering isn’t a realistic option to address all of this. Conduct online surveys or Q&A sessions to understand the little apprehensions employees are worried about in the workplace. Answering them will give a mileage in building the culture and trust in the organization.
If left unanswered, it may spread fear and panic across the organization before you know it!
4. Virtual fun at work
In a remote work mode, killing loneliness and building team spirit is essential to keep employees motivated and engaging. A dynamic intranet encourages communications, discussions, and employee engagement making every employee visible while providing a central hub.
Besides some features like my team’s anniversaries, accomplishment, recognition, etc can make it smart and fruitful too. Online team activities, introducing families, fun times can bring in elements of gamification. Furthermore, rewarding employees who run the extra mile to help peers to untangle a roadblock and outstanding performers will bring the required engagement levels.
5. Virtual employee assistant 24/7
Most of the time a knowledgeable coworker comes to our rescue in finding the required information. Ever wondered how it happens virtually!
A virtual digital assistant a.k.a chatbot can help you round the clock in providing relevant information at fingertips, troubleshooting assistance, etc. Equipping your employees with the appropriate tools required to succeed can simultaneously improve productivity and bolster employee engagement to achieve unparalleled results.
Another dimension in chatbot efficiency is the Power of the “Push” and “Pull” feature of the chatbot. This will notify employees about the important and relevant updates, news, announcements stored in the intranet. Especially at this time of disruption when organizations have a scattered workforce and seeing a huge volume of traffic due to panic all around.
Based on the location or designation of an employee, the chatbot sends a relevant pop-up message.
Conclusion
While we navigate through the unchartered waters of uncertainty during this unprecedented time, organizations must tap employee engagement to harness broad capabilities in driving productivity towards their goals. It can be a paramount factor that can help make a difference in this jarring time. It’s time to roll up your sleeves and use this pandemic to upgrade your existing intranet with relevant missing features helping your workforce to manage this transition.
Looking for a quick deployment of modern intranet infused with the power of AI? Check out Mesh
Mesh 3.0 is a multi-feature, AI-enabled, Employee Experience Platform where employees can collaborate, share, communicate, and engage effectively in the organization, helping the evolution of organization and employee maturity. It helps in personalizing information delivery and equips employees with the right information at the right time.
Poonam Chug is AVP - SaaS Strategy & Business. She has worked in various areas, right from designing and executing sales & account management strategies to reengineering digital workplace solutions. With her determined focus on our mission and progressive approach, she has achieved customer delight in the space of AI, Knowledge Mining, Content & Collaboration, Virtual Assistants, RPA and more. Backed with a deep understanding of customer needs and technology, she leads the SaaS business unit with an upshot of maximizing revenue while ensuring customer satisfaction.
Poonam Chug