How to carve out an engagement-boosting content strategy for employees
Are you communicating effectively with your colleagues? Sophie Parrott, senior content writer, explores why your internal content strategy could play a vital role in helping to retain top talent.
In recent months, conversations around employee engagement and staff retention have been at the forefront of many businesses, as the effects of the ‘Great Resignation’ have taken hold. There are many reasons why an employee might become disengaged at work – from having a bad boss, to a lack of career progression or being given little to no flexibility over how they work.
But another factor could be exacerbating these spiralling employee turnover levels: a lack of internal communication. This isn’t totally new – back in 2016 data from law employment consultancy Peninsula found that a lack of communication within a company was the single biggest reason for staff wanting to leave their roles. And despite its importance to staff retention, workplace performance levels and better business outcomes, data suggests that workforce engagement levels are currently suffering. In fact, Gallup research suggests that 51% of employees are not engaged at work, while 13% are actively disengaged.
Of course, a content strategy will only be as strong as the HR strategy that is underpinning it. If you are pushing out lots of content to staff, but aren’t addressing what’s important to employees or responding to their feedback, then your efforts will be wasted.
However, authentic and effective communications can play a crucial role in enhancing the employee experience – helping staff to feel better informed and valued by making sure they are a part of important business conversations.
So how can brands ensure that their internal content strategy provides real value to their employees, demonstrates staff concerns are being addressed – and fosters genuine engagement?
Cover the topics your employees care about
The first step is establishing which subjects are relevant to your employees, and highlighting stories that they are genuinely interested in. This will differ from business to business, but could include a focus on internal company policies – whether it’s a new volunteering initiative, a hybrid working policy, or career development opportunities.
Look at your company values, review employee survey data and draw on challenges felt across the business and workforce. By putting these themes at the heart of your editorial strategy, your content is more likely to serve the needs of its target audience – and actually get read.
Make colleague comms a priority
Consistency is key – no one wants company communications to feel ad-hoc or like an afterthought. In fact, according to a survey from Trade Press Services, 85% of employees feel more motivated when company leaders offer frequent updates on company news.
Making sure that you produce carefully considered content regularly, creating a schedule and sticking to it, will be crucial to keep staff informed at work. At Speak, we use newsroom processes – from channel scans that help us source ideas, to weekly editorial meetings – to ensure our clients are publishing regularly across their platforms.
A consistent output not only demonstrates that you understand the importance of making sure your workforce is informed, but it will also give them a better understanding of the business, its goals – and the role that they play in helping achieve them.
Consider the distribution of content
As well as acknowledging the topics and stories that are important to your workforce and determining what you will cover, you need to consider how this content will be shared with your workforce.
There are many factors that might influence how you distribute content. From preferred platforms (do employees spend their hours scrolling through TikTok or LinkedIn?) to the devices people have access to during the working day (are they sat at desks or are they on the go?). It’s likely that different employees will consume content in different ways – whether it’s daily posts via your company’s intranet, a weekly podcast, or a monthly newsletter.
Make use of survey feedback and audience metrics, and experiment across different channels to work out how employees consume content across the business. Ultimately, the time you spend producing content will be pointless if you’re not publishing it where it will get read.
Keep colleagues at the core
While company updates and business news will undoubtedly form an important part of an effective internal content strategy, this shouldn’t be your brand’s sole focus when looking to boost employee engagement. It’s equally important to get colleagues involved in creating this content.
Brands should give colleagues the opportunity and platform to tell their own stories – whether it’s sharing personal experiences, or highlighting their achievements at work. A fantastic example of this is Spotify’s HR blog – a public-facing platform that gives the streaming platform’s senior HR team the space to shed light on their latest people-related policies and share the thinking behind these initiatives.
It’s by keeping colleagues at the core of any internal content strategy – from platform and format to subject matter and perspective – that you’ll help assure staff that their voices are valued and being heard.
To access data from the full snapshot report, enquire about bespoke data reporting or find out how to improve your brand’s content engagement, contact Gabrielle Bridle from our client services team at gabriellebridle@speakmedia.co.uk or on LinkedIn.