Wow… what a whirlwind couple of weeks it’s been … for a large company, ramping up for the month of October for Benefits Renewal is akin to a retailer ramping up for the holiday season. From a communications perspective, benefits renewal is generates the largest open rates and click throughs on e-mail communications, as well as page views on the corporate intranet. So what does this tell you? That it’s the perfect opportunity to engage employees to not only educate on available benefits options but to also drive the corporate message. And what better way to achieve that than to leverage social media / enterprise 2.0.
I came across this fantastic post on Benefits Buzz which discusses how, as communicators, we should be rethinking how we deliver our messaging and how benefits renewal is the perfect time to take advantage of social media options:
Three big factors are shifting the employee mindset faster than you can say “default elections” and you need to know how to react:
1. Employees care about their benefits more than ever before. Survey after survey shows how much employees value their benefits–-both health care and financial. With salaries frozen, or decreasing, and the value of health care benefits always on the rise, benefits make up a larger part of total compensation than in years past–and, as a result, a larger part of your employment brand and value proposition.
Tagged as:
enterprise 2.0,
internal communications,
social media,
web 2.0
Original Source:
Inside IKEA’s Human Intranet Approach, Paul Chin, Intranet Journal
I do a little, you do a little, and together we do a lot. This is a concept that’s deeply embedded in the business model for IKEA, the global home furnishing giant with over 270 stores in 36 countries. The strong sense of teamwork, community, and collaboration expressed in this simple principle forms the basis of IKEA’s organizational and operational culture. It means as much to those working in HR, Sales, and Marketing as it does to consumers who buy the company’s flat packed furniture that they assemble themselves.
A strong corporate culture, however, doesn’t always translate into effective information systems. In fact, when done poorly, the latter can be a detriment to the former. There’s always been an unfortunate disconnect between technology-based systems and the people they’re meant to support. But IKEA’s humanistic, people-focused approach to its business naturally carried over to the development of its intranet.
Rather than forcing its corporate culture to bend to accommodate a technology-based system, IKEA used its firmly established culture as the foundation for its IT solutions. It’s an approach that garnered IKEA North America’s intranet, IKEA Inside, much praise when it was recognized as one of the world’s ten best intranets of 2008 by the user-experience research firm Nielsen Norman Group (NNG). It’s an approach that enables IKEA to keep all its employees up-to-date with everything going on within the company. And it’s an approach that defines the true purpose and spirit of an intranet: To bring people and information together.
Tagged as:
Employee Engagement,
IKEA,
internal communications,
intranet
Original source:
Intranet 2.0 Increases Employee Engagement, by Toby Ward
Employee engagement is the top priority and the organizational coup de grace for many HR practitioners in both the private and public sectors. However, corporate communications plays one of the most important catalytic roles in determining employee engagement, and the intranet is increasingly the most important catalyst in heightening engagement levels, which in-turn improves HR metrics such as employee recruitment and retention (even customer service).
Engagement Value
In short, engaged employees aren’t just happy ones, but have a strong emotional bond to the organization that employs them and proactively look to improve the position of the organization. An engaged employee is more likely to:
- Understand and support through action a company’s vision and goals
- Recommend the company’s products and services to friends and family
- Work smarter and longer hours without being asked
- Enjoy challenges and problem solving
- View their own personal growth as linked to the company’s performance
Of course, if used correctly, the intranet is an extremely powerful tool for driving employee engagement. So much so, that in six years of planning and investment, the intranet evolved from the third most trusted source of information at IBM (well behind immediate manager and co-workers) to the most trusted source of information at the global company.
In fact, the intranet has become so valuable at IBM, that according to internal IBM research:
- 80% IBM employees visit w3 (IBM’s Intranet) at least once per day
Tagged as:
Employee Engagement,
internal communications,
social media
Web 2.0 and Employee Communications Survey (Aon Human Capital Consulting)
From the survey: The Aon survey “results show a much broader use of Web 2.0 media among all generations, whether hourly or salaried, not to socialize, but to get their jobs done. With a broader, multi‐generational audience using Web 2.0 media today, employers have another reason to look closely at harnessing the power of Web 2.0 media and integrating these tools into their internal communications.
This report looks at the emerging role Web 2.0 media has in employee communication and engagement strategies. Employers can resist Web 2.0 media and restrict its use at work or they can leverage its influence and integrate Web 2.0 media into strategies for recruiting, educating, engaging and retaining employees. The point is, employees are using Web 2.0 media at work for work purposes anyway, employers should capitalize on this to enhance their business.”
Employee Engagement Survey by IABC shows that employers faced with reduced communication budgets and resources are turning to social media to keep their workforce engaged.
“Communicating for optimal employee engagement is always a timely topic, but even more so during challenging economic times,” said Robin McCasland, a director in Buck Consultants’ communication practice and 2009–2010 chair of IABC Research Foundation. “Our results represent opportunities for communicators to have greater influence in delivering messages that encourage employees to remain productive, and to understand how their work contributes toward achieving business priorities.”
Tagged as:
Employee Engagement,
internal communications,
intranet
Now that you know how important it is to make employees ambassadors of your brand, the next step is to develop an internal brand campaign. If what you communicate externally isn’t understood internally, how do you build a company that lives what it does? More importantly, how then do you commit employees to emulate the brand and become your company’s greatest advocates?
One of the most important aspects to the success of a company often starts from within. Employees who know your business and who understand the roles they play in helping it achieve its goals are thereby motivated to help the company succeed. It is essential that you explore strategies and tactics to increasing employees’ understanding of who and what the company does, educating them around your services and then focusing on short and long term action plans to increase awareness and engage employees to live the brand characteristics and core values.
Help your employees articulate your brand promise, by beginning with these steps:
Step 1: Marketing is Your BFF
Marketing and internal communications can sometimes have a tenuous relationship. But this is the time for these two organizations to become BFFs. Work with the marketing team to determine the key external messages, and internalize those key messages into a primary message that is broad enough to resonate with employees, and structure that message into easy-to-understand formats. Review the external brand creatives and determine what components parlay into internal communication pieces that educate employees on the solutions your company offers as well as the products that support those services.
Tagged as:
ambassadors,
brand management,
brand strategy,
employee ambassadors,
Employee Engagement,
internal communications,
social media ambassadors
