Employee Benefits Connect 2017: Organisations should acknowledge and maximise employee generated content to enhance employee engagement.
Delivering the conference session ‘Talent in the world of transparency’ at Employee Benefits Connect 2017, Katrina Collier (pictured), social recruiting expert at The Searchologist, explained that as the fight for attention online intensifies, employees are looking for genuine insight into potential employers. This can be achieved at no-to-little cost across social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, for example, by encouraging employees to use a corporate hashtag to share photos and comments about their life at an organisation. Online tools can also be utilised to easily re-share these posts from a corporate social media account, helping to boost employee buy in and engagement further.
Collier said: “Everybody is already sharing content, [the organisation] just doesn’t necessarily know about it. So if everyone uses [the same] hashtag then the corporate site can share what is going on. And it gives [a] genuine insight into what the [organisation] is really like.”
Sites such as Indeed and Glassdoor have shifted the balance of power, making it easier for prospective and current employees to share their experiences of organisations and for others to read these reviews and comments. This has significant implications for organisations looking to attract talent to their business. It is vital that organisations read this feedback and acknowledge it, said Collier. This includes recognising the time people have taken to provide feedback and, if negative points are raised, sharing the action that is being taken to address and improve upon these issues. Providing contact information also allows the organisation to pick up the conversation offline.
Collier said: “People took the time to write [this information] on the internet, they just want to be heard.”
This personal and tailored approach should also be adopted in the recruitment process. Generic recruitment emails and in-mails are likely to be ignored or go unheard, whereas a personal touch demonstrates the value an organisation places on its people. A positive experience during the recruitment and on-boarding process can also set the tone for enhanced engagement during an employee’s tenure at the organisation, added Collier.