Editorial
When you contemplate the steps you can take to improve employee experience, you might think about organizing workplace events, sharing appreciative messages or doling out one-off perks or benefits. While these can help broaden the business impact of employee experience in a measurable way, workplace leaders and decision-makers need access to accurate and up-to-date data. And, more than that, they need actionable strategies that put that data to good use.
As a leader at a global company, I know that a better employee experience leads to tangible business outcomes. In this article, I’ll draw on my experience to share three tactics that you can use to measurably boost employee experience.
1. Use Engagement Data to Have Better (and Fewer!) Meetings
My teams at AvePoint work in different time zones, and across continents. As a leader, this experience has highlighted the importance of in-person meetings as a tool to plan and connect. But like many of us, I’m also weary of holding too many meetings that might not be necessary.
One of the keys to avoiding unnecessary meetings is to maximize engagement when you do meet. Distractions during calls and in-person gatherings lead to less productive, less insightful discussions, which in turn can lead to more meetings. In fact, according to Harvard Business Review, 70% of meetings keep employees from being productive. The number, length and duration of meetings have become hot topics in the post-COVID era, with the average number of virtual calls and in-person gatherings having tripled in the last few years, according to Microsoft.
To cut down on the number of meetings and improve their effectiveness, some leaders have started to implement post-meeting surveys to gauge their impact. But surveys are flawed tools for this purpose, with some employees expressing discomfort speaking candidly unless anonymity is guaranteed (which is rarely the case, particularly in smaller gatherings).
An alternative is using software that securely and anonymously collects engagement data during meetings. By gathering and monitoring anonymized data of this kind, you can understand when a meeting may or may not be necessary. You can also use this information to benchmark improvements in the attentiveness of attendees and productivity of the meeting, which makes it possible to directly connect improved experience to improved productivity.
Related Article: Is Responsible Employee Surveillance Possible?
2. Monitor the Use of Digital Tools — But Don’t Micromanage
It’s no secret that employee satisfaction is linked to productivity. Slack, for example, reports that 82% of employees are more productive when they're happier at work.
As leaders, it’s part of our job to make sure that our people are satisfied and productive, and that’s exactly why it’s important to have accurate, up-to-date insights into employee productivity.
The good news for workplace leaders and decision-makers is that there’s a wealth of software available to meet this need. To deploy reporting software, you need to first identify the productivity tools (Word, Excel or PowerPoint, for example) that your employees use most frequently. Next, provide guidance on what tools to use when for communications and collaboration. Once that’s established, you can look into tools that anonymously monitor use of this software and present it in an easy-to-digest format.
It’s crucial, though, that employees don’t feel surveilled or micromanaged. If they do, productivity and satisfaction could quickly decrease. That’s why it’s important to collect data anonymously and to be open and conscientious with employees during the rollout of the technology. As always, strong implementation and proactive communication are key to the success of any sort of enterprise software.
Related Article: Perplexed About Productivity? You're Not Alone
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3. Fine-Tune Internal Communications with Quantitative Insights
When organizations and teams work in different parts of the world, internal communications becomes even more important. I’ve seen this play out in real-time during my tenure at AvePoint, which has spanned an IPO, an international expansion and the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, as country manager of our Philippines office, I am responsible for bridging our global teams and facilitating effective collaboration.
The pandemic highlighted the value and ROI of internal communications during a significant crisis. A recent study in The Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management found that the strength of internal communications was directly linked to employer attractiveness during the worst of the pandemic. After witnessing the benefits of more robust internal communications during the COVID crisis, top organizations started to invest more heavily in their internal communications programs. But it’s not enough to simply invest in these internal programs — you need to also have a clear understanding of what’s working and what isn’t, which is where technology can help.
To prove the impact of internal communications, you need to closely track who is viewing your content and when, and connect those actions to business goals. There are multiple tools that can gather this information and more from corporate intranets and other communication channels.
As we all try to make hybrid work more effective, it’s critical to understand how your organization can connect employee experience to business goals. The good news for business leaders is that a wave of innovation is rising to meet that challenge. When it comes to employee experience, we can do and know more than ever before.
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