Engage Employees for Increased Brand Awareness

Imagine wasting up to $500 billion every year, but not realizing you have done so. You’re probably wondering what kind of person is that oblivious to lose a great amount of money, but in reality it’s a compilation of everyone’s waste. Every year organizations lose billions dollars due to disengaged workers.

Employee engagement doesn’t mean happiness. Some employees are happy because they don’t produce quality work, lacking the productivity necessary for a business to do well. According to the formal definition, employee engagement is the emotional commitment an employee has to the organization and its goals. While happiness and satisfaction play a part into engagement, it’s more about employees caring about their work and organization. The work they produce serves a greater purpose – it’s meaningful to them.

Organizations must have a futuristic mentality because companies can become irrelevant in a matter of months. Employee Engagement is vital in making sure a company is able to survive despite stiff competition in the market. On average, organizations that have engaged employees have 37 percent less absenteeism, 18 percent more productivity and 28 percent higher gross margins. With 70 percent of U.S. workers disengaged, it’s easy to see how nearly $500 billion is wasted annually.

Having engaged workers is one of the most underrated aspects of competitive advantage. Talent can be quantified when one puts it in the right perspective. Talent is vital to a company’s success because the better talent an organization has, the great chance an organization has to become more innovative. The ideas stemmed from those innovations can lead to greater returns.

In addition to financial returns, engaged employers can also improve the brand of the organization. The strongest brands are those with the best reputation. Despite the economy, employees have much of the power, especially if they are top performers. What they say about the company reflects on the company whether the organization agrees with it or not. The rise of social media has had a profound impact on company branding. Through the use of social media and other resources, job seekers can see whether or not a brand is really genuine. However, the best source to find information about a company is from current or former employees.

While not everyone has access to an employee at every company, Glassdoor allows current and former employees to write reviews, write about interview experiences and discuss salaries, breaking down that barrier. With Glassdoor continuing to grow in popularity, Software Advice recently surveyed 4,633 job seekers in the U.S. to discover if they use the tool and how they use it.

“Almost half of all job seekers use Glassdoor reviews,” said Erin Osterhaus, HR analyst at Software Advice. “As the majority of these job seekers use Glassdoor to research top employers in their field, by simply having a profile your company increases its visibility to potential applicants, and can in turn get a leg up on the competition when attracting sought after candidates.”

Of the 48 percent that use Glassdoor, nearly half of those respondents said they use it before thinking about applying for a job. Think of Glassdoor as a way for candidates to screen companies. Depending on a company’s profile, a top talent may choose not to apply for a position based on what the person finds out about the organization. It can also have the opposite effect – top talent may be more enthusiastic about a company based on what it reads on Glassdoor.

Glassdoor can be a difference maker in recruiting top talent. In today’s market, top employees have the power because their production affects the future of the organization. While Glassdoor may be a great resource for those looking at companies, it also gives employers the ability to customize their company page by adding content via text, images and video. Organizations can market their company to attract the best people. However, the content meaningless if employee reviews berate the organization. Having engaged employees matters.

As employees opinions gain significance in the eyes of potential candidates, keeping employees engaged must become a priority. Employees can make or break a brand because people trust other people more than they trust organizations.

Fortunately, there are steps organizations can take to improve its engagement dilemma. Common steps such as listening to employees, investing in them, giving meaningful work, offering workplace flexibility, etc. are good first steps to take depending on the organization, but it’s time for companies to take it to the next level. Every day the workplace becomes more digitally advanced, with new products entering the market to solve various needs. Organizations, just like consumers, have needs that need to be met – why not use technology to solve those needs?

One such technology that can be beneficial to improve employee engagement is the use of video. The various uses of video can solve a multitude of problems in the workplace. For example, one pressing issue, especially for global companies, is geography. Senior leaders can be hundreds or thousands of miles away from employees and may not have the time or the resources to frequently interact with them. It’s also difficult to interact with employees when they are dispersed around the world. Video provides a solution to reach those people. Through the use of video messaging, leaders and employees can send personal face-to-face messages to one another bringing the company together. Video conferencing can also bridge the gap between leaders and their employees. Establishing those long distance relationships can create a positive collaborative culture, which is attractive to top performers.

Organizations with open channels of communication between leaders and its employees tend to have more engaged people because employers have a voice. Video gives employees a platform on which they can voice their opinions through messages or conferences. Leaders can use this as a listening tool, and gain input from the employees on how to continue improving certain practices.

In addition to listening, employers must take it a step further and invest in its employees. By taking action, leaders can send a message to its employees that they are valued and respected. Top performers are vital assets to any business, so it’s important for them to be treated as such. Through the use of video as an e-learning tool, organizations can continue providing training and development. This sends a message to the employees that they matter in the company.

Additionally, the relationship between an employee and its leaders is vital to any business. Video can strengthen the relationship because business leaders can send messages to employees. Whether it’s a message of gratitude or just to check in, leaders have the ability to engage with workers like never before.

Lastly, top performers want to work for innovative companies because the best want to work for the best. Using video in your engagement strategy is a perfect way to bridge the gap. As society moves toward greater use of technology, the actions of the business must reflect those trends.

A business can try and do everything it can to enhance its brand to attract top talent, but if its employees are disengaged, all those resources go to waste. People always matter.