In the run up to the 7th anniversary of Intra.NET USA we are excited to announce our Speaker Justin McHeffey, Senior Product Marketing Manager at SocialChorus.
Find out more about SocialChorus and get a Sneak Peek into her session.
we.CONECT: What defines a great employee experience and what are the barriers to achieving it?
Justin McHeffey: A great employee experience hinges on an organization’s ability to reach every worker with personalized information, no matter where they spend their day. When every employee is up to speed on company news and connected to the bigger business vision, their access to internal knowledge positively impacts the commitment to their job and productivity.
Barriers to a great employee experience often occur when intranet and internal communications platforms can’t deliver relevant, personalized content for everyone. This can happen in a number of ways, from communications gaps with frontline workers to poor system integrations with the digital workplace. Every employee needs to be met where they are, whether that’s on desktop, mobile, email, within third-party applications, or across digital signage. It is mission critical for any company that communications to employees are sent and received, regardless of endpoint.
we.CONECT: How to engage employees in a new hybrid working setting? Is it harder than it used to be?
Justin McHeffey: Engaging the hybrid workforce shouldn’t be harder than it used to be. Generally, it can be harder if a forward-thinking communications strategy hasn’t been created or the wrong communications platform is being used to execute on that strategy. While it’s true that the global workforce is more distributed than ever — in home offices, on multiple job sites, across time zones and continents — modern intranet solutions have evolved to accommodate every worker. Targeting your desk-based and frontline employee base doesn’t need to be hard, but implementing advanced intranet technology with the right vendor is critical.
we.CONECT: How should Comms and HR approach the diverse employee groups?
Justin McHeffey: Starting from the point of view that every employee deserves engaging, compelling internal content will shape your campaigns and directly influence success.
Put yourself in the shoes of a field worker vs. a desk-based worker. Ask yourself these questions and tailor your campaign accordingly:
What’s the most likely channel for me to consume this content? (Mobile app, desktop experience, email, etc.)
What content is most relevant to me? (Training reminders, quarterly sales performance, benefits enrollment, CEO updates, etc.)
How urgent is this message and does it require employee action?
we.CONECT: What are your tips for getting to know the employees? In what way does data help, and what should the data/ measurement focus on?
Justin McHeffey: Follow the chatter and commentary! Can you think of a more insightful, unfiltered pulse on how employees are feeling internally? Reactions, emotions, and opinions (both positive and negative) are valuable metrics in the communicator’s toolkit. Use them to refine and improve your campaigns.
Engagement and behavioral data are key elements of the post-campaign analysis. The same way that the KPIs of an outbound marketing campaign are used to score performance, a similar approach should be used in internal communications. After your campaign has ended, check your open rates, click through rates, push notifications and reminders, and engagement rates (total comments and likes). Did you reach a large enough percentage of your target audience? Did you generate the interactivity that you wanted? If the answer is yes to these questions, rinse and repeat the process on your next campaign. If you fell short, drill into the data and see what could have been optimized for better performance.
Platforms like SocialChorus allow admins to check even the most granular metrics — like total time spent watching a video and post views and activity rates by individual employees. Use this data to evaluate your successes and failures to create the best formula for company-wide communications.
we.CONECT: How to reflect this knowledge in the intranet or a communication platform?
Justin McHeffey: The modern intranet has adapted to the needs of the modern worker. No longer is it a communications guessing game as to whether your employees saw and engaged with your messages. From the perspective of an admin that’s responsible for reaching every employee or a sub-group of employees, your efforts are rewarded with real-time data that captures campaign performance.
This data is essential to building and maintaining your internal communications and HR outreach. And from the employees’ side, the modern intranet has removed the friction to locate and consume important internal content. Delivery across every communications channel and endpoint has made staying in the know easier than ever for every worker.
Thanks Justin! Be sure to check out SocialChorus’s session at 2:30 PM EST on Thursday, July 22nd, online.
Intra.NET Reloaded USA is America’s leading Intranet and Internal communications event.
About SocialChorus
SocialChorus is the leading workforce communications platform that transforms how workers and organizations connect every day. We empower communicators to reach every worker—from the head office to the front line. Companies thrive and win when all their workers feel informed, aligned, and supported. The SocialChorus platform allows communicators to publish once and distribute everywhere—efficiently delivering critical information to the right employee at the right time.
SocialChorus customers include some of the world’s largest global brands including AB InBev, The Dow Chemical Company, CSL Behring, Kohler Co., Cargill Inc., Estee Lauder Companies, American Cancer Society, and PVH Corp.
For more information, visit https://socialchorus.com/