December 2009

By Brian Baker

What if we asked employers to “rethink” the concept of employee engagement? What if instead of asking them to think top down or bottom up, we asked them to look left and right?

In today’s latticed (not laddered) organization, what they would see is a need to employ new modes of communication to increase engagement. We’re calling these new rules and modes of communication “Engagement 2.0.”

The new rules of Engagement 2.0 are: 1) Help managers engage employees in meaningful dialogue that leads to increased collaboration and top performance and 2) Bolster the reputation of the firm and its leaders.

The rules of employee engagement have changed, partly because of the economy and partly because employees just feel disenfranchised. A 2009 Gallup poll found that 56% of employees were not engaged, while 18% were actively disengaged.

Employers are feeling it too. In Aon Consulting’s 2009 Benefits and Talent Survey, 75% of respondents ranked employee engagement as “very important” or “extremely important,” while only 37% said they were “very effective” or “extremely effective” at employee engagement.

One of the biggest reasons for employee dissatisfaction is that employers have not kept pace with how employees communicate—the ways in which they interact, share information, and influence others. After all, employees live outside the firewalls and the brick and mortar spaces we create for them. They interact with their families and talk about work with their friends. They are increasingly less defined by their workplace.

For leadership, this means we have to embrace how employees want to work and communicate how they communicate. We have to reach beyond the firewall and find new ways to engage employees and build their trust.

It’s not just younger workers, either. Four generations of employees now comprise the workforce,each with different needs and preferences. We need to look beyond traditional, “catch all” forms of communication to more innovative and personalized forms, to reach everyone from the most techsavvy Internet user to the reader who prefers a hard copy of the newsletter.

Enter Social Media

To embrace social media in helping us achieve our business goals, we must understand who and what we are enabling, then relinquish control.

Think back to when the “World Wide Web” first came to the workplace. Employers responded by quickly issuing workplace policies on using the Internet for personal business. We feared the Internet would detract from productivity. Next, we moved to block popular websites and build firewalls. We soon learned that employees were using their iPhones and BlackBerries throughout the workday—not just to stay connected, but to do their jobs.

In today’s 24/7 culture, there’s no longer a clear line between using the web for work and non-work. People are working—whether it looks like it or not—24/7. If we let them work how they want, and if we value their work based on results, we are more likely to engage them. In other words, if employees are using social media at work and for business purposes anyway, we should capitalize on that to expand their network, build and improve our firm’s reputation, and enhance our business.

Social media in the workplace

Most Used Web 2.0 Media at Home

*Respondents were asked for use of text messaging when looking for information, not for communicating with friends and families.

Most Used Web 2.0 Media at Work for Work

Source: Aon Consulting’s Web 2.0 and Employee Communications Survey, March 2009

Social Media and Wellness, Then vs. Now

In the past, to demonstrate their commitment to wellness, employers published an employee health newsletter, put it in everyone’s mail slot or inbox, and hoped they read it. Social media has created a whole new conversation on wellness that is based on two-way dialogue. Among the strategies we use today:

• Upload and share podcasts on healthy living, common risks and conditions, and general wellness advice
• Start a YouTube channel for company events to convey employee and manager messages on putting wellness into action
• Survey LinkedIn users to compare wellness program ideas, create cross-company teams, or involve other professional groups or consortiums
• Get daily health tips by email or text message (SMS)
• Track daily, personal progress on an iPhone or BlackBerry
• Blog about typical health and wellness challenges or post questions on the company’s wellness board
• Check the company’s website for who is teaching today’s yoga class and connect with other colleagues who are participating
• Allow spouses/partners and dependents to receive and send communications, take part in contests, or contribute to other dialogues traditionally only available to internal employees
• Collaborate with coworkers on Facebook to unite the team and walk for cancer research.
• Upload video or multi-media of the team’s involvement, achievements, or other personal stories or testimonials

Getting Started: Key Questions

Embracing social media in your communications strategy requires some finessing. You need to start with some key questions, choose your social media channels, then look at both pre- and post-message management, how you will get instant feedback, monitor reactions, respond to questions and concerns, and reinforce your objectives.

Social media can maximize the conversation, but recognize that employees also share in its power. It is a two-way dialogue. Their ability to alter the message is as fundamental as the firm’s ability to shape the message.

Some key questions to get you started:

• Are your business objectives at the forefront of your communications strategy?
• Do you know your employees’ communications and engagement preferences? If so, have you broken those preferences down by generation?
• How is your organization embracing social media and Web 2.0 strategies for HR, communications and engagement?
• Are you engaging your entire ecosystem (employees, spouses/partners, dependents, buyers, clients, and suppliers)?
• Is your organization adapting well to change?
• What about social media can help your firm rethink HR? Who is responsible for making it happen?

The possibilities are virtually endless.

Contact

Brian Baker is Vice President of Aon Consulting’s New Media and Creative Services Group. He can be reached at 212.441.2006 or brian_baker@aon.com.