If these two statistics weren’t staggering enough, over 70% of employees rank being empowered by communications as an important implement of their engagement.
This being said, the importance of employee engagement and communication is essential for the homeostasis of a productive workplace, the backbone of a forward-thinking business.
But what topics should you be communicating to your employees? What is important to them? What makes them feel empowered? What makes them look forward to internal communications and notifications?
We’ve researched across several industries and compiled the definitive topics and areas that businesses should be discussing and communicating with their employees.
Key Business Outcomes
Let your employees see the bigger picture for your business at it moves forward into the next months, years, and decades.
Employees feel more secure in their roles if they can see the bigger picture and the chance for the business, and themselves to progress and further their careers. Be sure to open a two way channel of communication. Tell your employees what you think is important for the continuous growth of the business, and ask them their thoughts on growth strategies.
Try to make sure that everyone is on the same page as to what your business wants to achieve and how this will be accomplished. With everyone working towards the same end goal, employee productivity will be maximized.
What Risks do you Face?
By opening a conversation about the risks that you face as an organization, you are not only outlining current risks for employees to consider, you’re gaining powerful feedback on the risks that they foresee.
What can you do as a team to mitigate any risks that you are facing? How can you work together to identify further risks and put measures in place to avoid or combat such risks in the future.
This is a perfect opportunity to find out what your employees are afraid of, who are afraid of many things, and who seem to feel the most confident as they look towards the future of the business.
Topics of conversation like this are incredibly valuable. Their outcomes may shed light on the need for team re-structuring, ongoing training for staff, and added measures for your business continuity plan.
What Are We Doing Wrong?
This is a humbling topic for management to bring forward to their employees, a topic which will spark trust, entice honest conversation, and increase productivity.
How many of your staff feel like processes that are currently in place waste time and could be executed more efficiently? How many staff feel that simple changes could be made in order to increase productivity and increase profits.
You would be surprised! By opening up this kind of rhetoric with employees, a few home truths could lead to tiny changes in infrastructure that massively increase productivity and employee satisfaction.
Rewards and Achievements
Top performers and hard workers deserve recognition in the workplace. Not only does this boost their confidence and offer great job satisfaction, but it can also inspire and motivate others to want to work better and harder within their roles.
This topic is best to be approached without too much gloating, but as an honest account of who is going the extra mile to help the business achieve its goals time and time again. It’s always nice to thank employees for their hard work, dedication, and time. Recognizing those that really go the extra mile, and bringing this hard work to the light of others, is a nice way to boost team morale and give back to those that are invaluable to your business.
It might not be a top performer that gets a mention every time as you discuss this topic, but a few team members that really carry a part of your organization. Those that work hard and don’t go looking for praise are often the ones that will really appreciate recognition from a managerial perspective.
Changes and Improvements
What has changed within your industry/business in the last year? What’s changed in the last decade?
How have these changes impacted your staff, your goals, and the overall running of your business?
How do staff feel about these changes? Do they need more training? Do they feel as though things could be done better? Do they feel as though changes must be made immediately?
If so, what are these changes? How can each individual team of staff work together to improve their roles and outcomes in the face of change?
Is your business adapting to change or falling behind? Are you up to date with technology and software that is industry standard for your business?
Opening up these kind of conversations are a strong learning curve for businesses. Remember, the goal of employee engagement is to give your staff a voice, an outlet, and an empowerment.
Many businesses can learn as much about their successes, failures, infrastructure and future by simply communicating in a better fashion with their employees.
Sure, a team of staff can pour over analytics and conversion rate optimization to find out exactly how a website is performing and what must be changed in order to improve all aspects of your online communications.
The only way of truly understanding and improving your business as a whole is to open up important topics of conversation as a two way channel for your dedicated employees.
By giving them a voice, you’re giving your business access to the best possible information that can keep you afloat and really solidify your workforce.
How often do you talk to your employees? How do you choose to communicate with them? Do you give them the opportunity to voice their concerns, ideas, and visions for your business?
Communication is key, by introducing the topics of conversation mentioned in this post you’ll empower yourself and greatly enhance the future of your business for all involved.
