The critical building block your employee initiatives are missing

4 min read

As we often say at Reward Gateway, employee engagement is a marathon, not a sprint. There are several building blocks to put in place, which can include initiatives like a discounts or reward and recognition platform, or a refresh of your internal communications strategy. There are always new ways to attract, engage and retain your workforce, and we also believe there is always room to improve and drive even better results.One way to take your platform to the next level is to take a hard look at the content you’re producing. Content is arguably one of the most underrated tools in employee engagement. Some example of content include:

• A company-driven blog
• Employee benefits announcements
• Descriptions of your values
• Important company updates

No matter what your content, it needs to speak directly to the individual, delivering a personal message that is relevant to them. Whether you feel confident enough to produce your own content or not, either written or visual, if you don’t have the right platform and means of delivery for it then you’ll find that your audience won’t tune in.

You could produce the most mind-blowing content but if no one knows it exists then they’re not going to consume it.

So how can you make sure that you’re actually reaching your employees? Here are a few tactics to take to your next team meeting:

Ask yourself: Are people really listening? And then ask even more questions.

Many HR Teams and Reward professionals are finding that a change in how their content is delivered, rather than how it is produced, is having a big impact on how their employees engage with the wider business vision and culture. A communications platform, or digital hub, can help deliver content to employees when and how they want and create a two-way conversation between employee and employer, no matter where they’re located. Consider:

• Bespoke content that’s customised to your company, such as branded blogs and pages on your hub specific to your employees so that they trust it
• Embedded videos for more modern communication, and to potentially reach a larger audience based on their communication style preference
• Flexible news pages that can be changed instantly to reflect real-time business updates

Once you’ve got your communications hub strategy set, you can gather feedback from polls and surveys to see what’s working and what isn’t. A digitally-hosted platform like SmartHub® can even help stamp out errors, as changes can be made immediately. Even if you don’t feel like Shakespeare at the keyboard, these tools let you get your content into the open, gather feedback, and make it better and better each time.

Start to create or rethink your company blogs

Blogs are a great place to start with your communication strategy. Typically blogs are shorter, personable pieces of content that delve into a specific topic, for instance a roundup of company updates or an introduction to a new member of the leadership team.

Here’s an example of some recent blogs on our own internal communications platform:

For instance, one of our clients uses blogs in a very powerful way to announce company news such as business achievements and product launches. They add a human touch to their blogs, too, as features on colleagues across different sites help to bring the company closer. 

Experiment, experiment, experiment!

Having a blog in place is a great first step but using it to reach the right audience at the right time is crucial. You don’t want your message to get lost on the high seas of old news and outdated info. That’s why your blogs should have meaning and purpose.

For instance, you can introduce the entire company to new faces through a clearly-labeled blog that your Recruitment Team could manage. Encourage employees to comment, or like the post to drive engagement. It will help new starters settle in quicker and give them a big wow on their first day.

Lastly, you can use content design to clearly set boundaries between company policies (that HR can manage and update as needed) and fresh news — business updates, charity events or people news or even an employer-sponsored book club.

This is just the start of creating a solid content strategy to help move along your employee engagement initiatives. We’d love to hear your ideas in the comments!

For more ways to increase employee benefits uptake and refine your content, visit our Resource Library for more practical advice.