A Clean-Slate Organizational Opportunity 

In January, after the frenzy of year-end push subsides and the holidays have come and gone, organizations around the globe are presented with a unique opportunity: the clean slate that comes with a brand new year. It can be used to kick-start an array of new initiatives – from health and wellness incentives to policy and system changes, strategic planning and goal setting for the next few quarters. It’s an intuitive time to introduce mission-critical endeavors and an essential time to engage your employees for success in the year ahead. 

Productivity, Performance, Profitability & Retention: The Perks of Employee Engagement

According to a 2018 Gallup survey, organizations with higher levels of employee engagement and lower levels of active disengagement consistently outperform their competitors. From a profitability standpoint, employers who excel in engaging their employees realize four times the earnings-per-share growth of those who don’t. Companies in the top quartile of engagement achieve substantially better customer engagement and employee retention, increased productivity, fewer accidents and 21% higher profitability. Engaged workers also report better health outcomes. In 2019, a G2 Crowd survey reported companies planned to increase employee engagement spending by 45%, a sign that discerning employers recognize the undeniable importance of keeping an engaged workforce. 

The way your organization engages with your employees during these first few weeks of the year can set the tone for your most vital 2020 initiatives. Creating communications that motivate employees to get involved and mitigate their concerns can help your organization stay in that top quartile, enjoying the real perks of employee engagement. 

Here are 7 ways to use compelling communications to build organizational momentum, boost employee engagement and empower your employees in 2020:

1. Drive Your Internal Marketing Efforts as Diligently as Your External

Use your internal marketing machine as a tool to inform employees, align them with the company's mission and values, and ensure they can relay that vision back to customers, offering them high-quality service based on well-informed input. Use social tools to spread the efforts and give every department buy-in. Invest as much in marketing to your employees as you do your external stakeholders, and empower them to relay those messages in everything they do. 

When employees are informed and engaged with the strategic vision, they support its success at every level. Use communications to motivate employees around new initiatives, competitions, upcoming events and anything at the forefront of organizational priority.

3. Share Goals, Objectives and Results 

Instead of allowing the results of hard work and performance to be assessed and shared once or twice a year, use your employee communications to continuously recognize organizational and individual successes. Track company-wide goals throughout the year and keep everyone excited and motivated with positive recognition. 

4. Create Opportunities For Trust Building and Confidence

Communicating a shared vision and reducing silos will make employees feel trusted and more confident in their work. Shining a spotlight on employee successes with consistent acknowledgement of their work helps them build credibility among their superiors and peers, encouraging cross-collaboration and enhancing team dynamics.

5. Share Information and Knowledge More Efficiently 

According to a McKinsey report, employees spend 1.8 hours every day searching for information – 9 hours, on average, per week. That’s more than 400 hours per year. Use your employee communications to keep your team up to speed. Create clear channels and repositories for current and archived data that helps them do their job effectively, so they can get hundreds of hours back. Streamline onboarding by continuously updating materials and sharing them with new employees. 

The more exposure your communications have, the more effectively they’ll resonate with your employees. Start with a core message and disseminate it through as many vehicles as you possibly can – from company-wide emails to weekly newsletters, project management platforms, social media, intranet landing pages and good old word-of-mouth. Reinforce your message and keep the content fresh. 

A strong organizational culture doesn’t just happen… it’s created. Communication is one of the key tools employers have at their disposal to drive that strong company culture. From face-to-face conversations to your “Why You Should Work With Us” page, you should be able to clearly articulate what your company culture is, why it matters, set behavior expectations for your organization, educate people and weave that culture into everything you do. And it all starts with being able to capture it with content. 

Keep the Communication Channels Open

Above all else, create frequent feedback opportunities. Highly engaged employees feel valued, heard and understood. Build feedback loops into your communications, whether they’re brief surveys or chances to ask further questions. Reinforce the message that every communication is an open door for starting another conversation – because that’s the kind of culture your organization has created.