Employee engagement videos have revolutionized the way human resource departments conduct business. If part of HR’s job is to ensure all employees have the ability to collaborate and communicate with each other and their superiors, then employee engagement software is a vital tool to open employee communication lines and build expectations.
Still, even with technological advancements on the HR front, employees need to be actively engaged on a daily basis to raise engagement rates. The specter that still raises its ugly head in the world of HR is the dreaded 70% of employees who reported they were either “not engaged” or “actively disengaged” at work according to a 2016 study conducted by Gallup. When those numbers first came out, they terrified managers, CEOs, and HR departments across the US and beyond. They started scrambling to find solutions, some panacean, high-tech new system that plugged everyone in with everyone else, no matter where they worked.
Employee engagement technology has indeed evolved since 2016 and a plurality of solutions have developed to tackle different engagement and communication angles. We have instant-messenger apps, scheduling tools, and work-monitoring and -tracking software. But the biggest factor that improves employee communications and engagement has been staring us in the face all along: purpose.
Purposeful Employee Communications
It’s not hard to imagine how a workplace would be more productive if its employees came to work every day with a sense of purpose to their actions. If employees spend most of their working hours on something that mattered to them, you’d have an office full of happier, more engaged employees. Bad days happen but the consciousness of a larger purpose can be the difference between it being an occasional, one-off occurrence and building to larger dissatisfaction.
But how do you illuminate that purpose for your disengaged employees? It’s a tricky question because everyone’s purpose in their work and their life is different. Aligning that purpose to better employee engagement is the challenge all managers, executives and HR directors face.
To do this, you have to emphasize the why of the work. Why is the work your employees do important? Why do they need to show up for work on time every day?
Where Do Employee Engagement Videos Fit?
For leaders who have already invested in an employee engagement videos platform, all you have to do is make sure your video content fits your company’s purpose. When your company’s and employees’ purposes align, you get engaged employees. Prioritize purpose in your organization using video content.
If you’re just starting to consider video content for your employees, make sure all the operations you use video for, like learning and development or employee recognition, speak to the purpose of your organization and get at the motivations of your employees to come to work every day. This won’t be easy, because different people have different motivations and influences from their everyday lives, but when you can show your employees why their work matters at work and better explain your expectations of their work, you’ll see better engagement.
Transparency and humanization through video content can go a long way. Just as toddlers and other young children get tired of hearing “because I said so” from their parents, workers need more than to be told they need to do what they do “because.” Showing them where their contributions fit in the larger picture builds community as well as engagement (and a stronger sense of community is also fuel for employee engagement).