By Nick Bowden

Workplace engagement is a pain point for the majority of employers. According to Gallup’s meta-analysis report, “Engagement at Work: Its Effect on Performance Continues in Tough Economic Times,” 71 per cent of today’s employees are either not engaged or actively disengaged in the workplace. 

This research illustrates how employee engagement is functionally related to a company’s success; when employee engagement is poor, so are employees’ levels of job satisfaction, work performance and productivity. The lost productivity of actively disengaged employees is estimated to cost the U.S. economy $370 billion a year. Conversely, quality employee engagement results in lower absenteeism, lower turnover, higher productivity and higher profitability.

In this challenging economic climate, companies may have lost sight of this connection, but the research makes it clear that they should refocus and invest in the right employee engagement tools that will result in a real, meaningful impact on their bottom lines.

How?
Before embarking on an employee engagement overhaul, companies first must examine their options and determine which is ideal for their audience. Most current options fall in three categories:

• Offline tools
• Workplace communication platforms
• Online engagement platforms

Offline tools
For a long time, many companies have leveraged offline tools like company-wide meetings and training to create employee engagement, but the challenges with these tools are three-fold:

• Public forums can feel confrontational and anyone with a fear of public speaking will be less likely to participate.
• Employees may be afraid of speaking out for fear of retaliation from company leadership or supervisors for offering constructive criticism of a practice or policy.
• Feedback or suggestions will likely come from the usual voices – people who typically have no problem speaking up and making their opinions known.

To get everyone engaged, no matter their comfort level, companies may want to consider online tools where anonymity is an option and employees aren’t put on the spot or on a pedestal when asked for input.

Workplace communication platforms
In a total policy reversal from just a few years ago, most companies have embraced employees’ use of social media and mobile and are rolling out dedicated workplace communication tools to facilitate engagement opportunities among employees. There are many options in this category, including work-centric social networks like Yammer and Chatter and, largely in response to the trend of BYOD and proliferation of texting as a workplace tool, several workplace mobile messaging applications. There are challenges with workplace communication platforms as well:

• Employees have criticized Yammer in the workplace, citing that it fuels idle conversation and meme sharing rather than real dialogue.
• Employees are still wary about workplace mobile messaging apps due to privacy concerns and no clear workplace texting etiquette.

Workplace communication platforms only generate a one-way conversation because they lack a focused purpose for the dialogue, which results in low participation.

Online engagement platforms
Now, companies are turning to online engagement platforms to facilitate quality employee engagement. Typically used in the public sector by civic and educational organizations, these services offer companies a place to host focused, two-way dialogues between leadership and employees with the goal of gathering feedback on a specific topic that will be applied in the near future. In addition to the built-in incentivizing features, these sites put the purpose of the call for engagement front and center, so employees know why they should participate and what will happen with their contributions.

Two companies who are already putting two-way engagement platforms to use include:

• Engage First National – First National Bank created an internal online community engagement site for employees at all levels, asking that they share ideas about how to improve the customer experience.
• Speak Up, Nelnet! – Nelnet, a Nebraska-based lending conglomerate, created a site so leadership and employees can share their workplace experiences and collectively create new policies that make the company an even better place to work.

Not only are these platforms a great way to get employees engaged, but they’re also incredibly efficient because they are online and available 24/7. Employees and leadership are free to contribute or review the discussion whenever they find a free moment.

How do I know which tool is right for my company?
It’s important for companies to first identify the goal of their employee engagement endeavors. Engagement for engagement’s sake simply doesn’t work and in a time of austerity for many—if not most—companies in the world, investing in new technology can seem unnecessary if it has no defined purpose. Companies should look to employees to help them define their goals and for input on what will get them to participate. It’s impossible to make the right decision with no input from the people about whom that decision is made.

Nick Bowden is CEO and co-founder of MindMixer, an online community engagement platform helping hundreds of organizations communicate more effectively with their communities. Nick has been an advocate of better, more productive community engagement since he was 12, when a middle school project caused him to question how any community could make decisions on behalf of citizens without asking them. Nick lives in Omaha, Nebraska with his wife Lauren and two puggles Oliver and Tatum.