Using In-House Content to Build Employee Engagement

It’s no secret job-hopping employees are the bane of many employers. While there’s no fail-safe way to halt the growing tendencies of job candidates moving from job to job, there are methods to lessen its effects through active engagement of the employee base. One way is to create a level of engagement where employees feel they are integral to the larger goals of the organization.

Telling the Right Story
People want to be employed in organizations where they feel valued for their skills and know they are making a contribution. Those who have positive experiences are more likely to share this information with others and recommend where they work. Too often, these stories of triumph don’t get shared or amplified. When this happens, employees stop making the individual efforts, feeling demotivated. At its worst, employees leave the company with the thought that no one cared about their individual efforts.

Creating a Platform for Sharing
Companies looking to change this have the opportunity to share employee stories of individual and group triumph through employee-generated content. This is a way to collect, distribute and highlight the stories of employee achievements. Through these sharing and recognition efforts, companies can begin building support with the potential to strengthen employee engagement.

Planning for Success
When starting such a program, it’s easy to jump the gun with assumptions of “if you build it, they will come.” Before diving into the world of employee-generated content, it can be wise to create some ground rules. Following these is a way to ensure your efforts will not be wasted and the platform will be viewed as an asset for administration and staff alike.

1. Choose a mobile friendly platform, tool or technology that allows for the creation of content, submissions and the process of review. This might be a free online tool like Google Forms, a WordPress platform or an addition to an in-house program.
2. Create a plan of who to focus on, building relationships to get in-house acceptance, collecting stories and enhancing the brand. While this doesn’t need to be a regimented, process, a measure of consistency can communicate the effort is taken seriously by the company.
3. Communicate what is happening in the effort. Often it will be helpful if this information comes from the top-down and out. Rumors and guesses about what’s happening or secrecy in delays have the potential to down a project before it even gets off the ground.
4. Craft tools designed to help staff and managers embrace the project. For example, let people know if they can take pictures and video and provide a prompt encouraging staff to document what’s happening in- and off-site.
5. Continue moving forward with regular efforts supporting the cause of culture, reputation, core values, mission and ambassadorship. Celebrate each success as a way to improve performance and enhance engagement in the workplace.

This article is brought to you by Staffing Kansas City, a full-service Kansas City employment agency that provides contract-to-hire, direct hire and temporary employment placement services.