Oftentimes, organizations (including leadership) fail to grasp the importance of internal communication and the impact it has on employee engagement.
It’s been proven time and time again how important company culture has to do with lending employees a positive experience. For example, having a good company culture helps attract top talent, reduce involuntary turnover, and keep employees happy and productive.
But what about internal communications? How many companies are taking internal communication best practices into account when considering the employee experience?
What internal communications has to do with employee engagement
In our Glassdoor report, “What Culture and Engagement Have to do with Employee Retention”, we found most internal communicators eventually align their function’s purpose around employee engagement.
Internal communications is a way to communicate the unique story of an organization while representing every individual within the company. This includes culture, identity, and perception. So it makes sense to align transparent communication around employee engagement.
Employee engagement benefits
Let’s talk about the benefits of employee engagement.
Improving employee engagement has a lot of clear benefits:
- Employees stay longer
- It’s easier to retain them
- They’re more productive
- They innovate more
- They’re happier
- Et cetera
There is ample research available that proves increased employee engagement drives all of the above. Now the question is: What are the key drivers of employee engagement and how is it related to internal communication?
Key Drivers of Employee Engagement
In Simpplr Research’s study, we asked hundreds of employees to rate how excited they are to go to work every day and then surveyed various attributes of engagement. The regression shows those attributes that have the strongest impact on employee engagement. These engagement drivers are not unique to Simpplr’s research. Comparable findings have been shown in hundreds of research studies.
It’s important to pinpoint and focus your efforts on the most important drivers of employee engagement. The above data shows employee communications functions want to drive employee engagement. Statistically speaking, they should focus their efforts on three things to maximize their efforts:
- Purpose: Showing employees how their work (and the work of the company) has a positive impact and is something to be proud of; be transparent!
- Alignment: Making sure that employees and executives are on the same page and that everyone understands how their work is impactful
- Community: Creating an environment where employees feel safe, connected, and supported
If you’re interested in finding more about our research and creating a transparent workplace, you can download the Glassdoor research report here.
