There’s no question that you’ve heard the words employee engagement countless times over the last 2-3 years (if not longer)- but did you know there has been a burst of new technologies that have changed the employee engagement landscape over the past year? The internal company intranet has been ever-present in organizations since the beginning, but the emerging technologies, apps, and software available have made it so much easier to achieve your employee retention and engagement goals.
- The file-sharing intranet is no longer an adequate for employee communication – multi-functional communication portals are the emerging norm. Modern-day company communication portals are fashioned after social media sites, providing a news feed, employee interaction and promoting social connections. Some of the best sites include rideshare boards, social media feeds, service anniversary announcements, employee announcements, company quick links, new hire announcements, digital employee bulletin boards, leaderboards, health challenges, and more.
- Employee Relationship Management (ERM) systems are changing the game. If your organization is familiar with a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, then you may have insight into how powerful a thoughtful technology tool can improve the customer experience.The ERM is essentially a software platform that allows the organization to integrate all the drivers of engagement into one online system. A well-designed ERM is a robust template that houses and integrates your engagement efforts and the employee experience into one software platform. An ERM has a strong ROI for organizations that want to reduce turnover and boost employee engagement.
- Health and wellness are a pillar of employee engagement- and the technology is here to support it. Employee engagement software can now be integrated with active health and wellness programs to support initiatives like Fitbit challenges, and various other technology-related sync-ed advances. In addition, health and wellness is now becoming a main way to engagement with employees. Using technology to ramp up health and wellness engagement can take the form of an online Biggest Loser campaign, steps program, employee sponsored healthy recipe postings and safety award programs.
- There are now more channels than ever for people to engage with each other – especially millennials. With new employee engagement technologies, it is now easier than ever to communicate via SMS, online platforms, and social media. You can now make your employee communication and information sources available from smart phones – this creates a more modern and pleasant experience for employees, especially millennials, who are quickly becoming the largest part of the American workforce. New technologies allow for the connection of upper management to the larger employee population in new ways, fostering efficient and effective dialogue through the use of the latest technology. Things like portals and social integrations also help foster new social connections among employees that help strengthen the culture and the relationships employees have with their coworkers. Technology is not an end-all, but it does efficiently enable social connection and that allows employees to build their social capital at work and ultimately raises their level of engagement on the job.