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 © 2015 Edelman
CONNECTIONS
SURPRISE, DELIGHT AND ENGAGE
Five Consumer Marketing Approaches to Borrow for Employee Engagement
By
Meghan Barstow, Senior Vice President, Employee Engagement
An Edelman perspective on making meaningful employee connections that deepen engagement, build trustand accelerate business performanceAt a time when the voice of employees is more trusted than
 
its most
natural base of advocates. The fact is, there’s an increasing divide in the way employees are engaged and
communicated with at work (a dry, one-size-fits-all approach of corporate newsletters, intranets and leader messages) and how they interact with content in their personal lives (engaging content tailored to their personal interests and preferences as consumers). Taking a page from what works to engage consumers, there are five things companies can do to break through the clutter, drive better engagement and, ultimately, better business results.
1. Identify and engage your influencers
A
campaign’s
 or 
program’s
 success starts withresearch
 — 
in particular, knowing your audience andinfluencers. This is great news for those of us inemployee engagement because
it’s
 relatively easyand cost-effective to learn a lot about our audiences.After all, we have access to demographic data andcan very easily directly talk to and poll employees for their opinion and input.While an external campaign will map out the mostinfluential reporters, bloggers and organizations,identifying the leaders, managers and employees whowill champion an internal initiative is equally important.These stakeholders can help co-create the program sothere is buy-in, accountability and a better chance of itresonating with the broader employee base. They canalso be your early adopters and, ultimately, a go-tosource of information for their teams and colleagues.The following are groups to target as early adopters or influencers:
 High-potential employees identified by HumanResources (HR), leadership or managers
 Technical employees, such as Research andDevelopment or Information Technology
 Employee networks, such as multicultural,
women’s
or veterans groups
 Employees who self-select based on their passionand level of interest
2. Get personal.
There’s
 the well-known workplace adage to leaveyour personal life at the door, but the reality is thatthe personal is what drives open rates, interest and,ultimately, a connection. The power of storytelling
isn’t
 news, but how companies are leveraging it isevolving. This Melcrum blog discusses just that
 — 
theconcept of
“humanizing"
 the workplace experienceby creating opportunities for personal connectionsand leveraging storytelling. And we know it works.The most popular intranet stories? Employeespotlights. Photos are also a sure way to increaseclick-through rates, in particular those submitted byemployees. The same holds true for leader communications. This classic New York Times articlehighlights how one CEO realized his personal hobby,motorcycling, was a catalyst for creatingconnections and ultimately trust with his employees.So inject a little personality into your corporatecommunications to attract and hold the attention ofemployees. Here are some quick wins:
 Dropping the omniscient
“we”
 and opting for first-person communications
 Developing leader profiles and new colleagueintroductions that highlight the personal
 Conducting storytelling training for leaders andmanagers
 
 © 2015 Edelman
3. Think 
omnichannel.
Today, many marketers are focusing on creating theomnichannel experience for their brand
 — 
aconsistent experience for consumers across allchannels. The opportunity for internal communicatorsis to take stock of all channels and tools availableand strategically use a wide range of them torepeatedly reach and engage employees.Repetition is important, as
there’s
 a threshold of timesconsumers need to hear a message to believe it or take action (our  2012 Trust Barometer  identified 3-5times for credibility).
That’s
 why we need to getcreative and be respectfully persistent if we wantemployees to dedicate time, attention and energyto a business priority or communications initiative.Consider these approaches in addition to the usualsuspects of email, the intranet and town halls:
 Partnering with HR to incorporate your contentinto key communications, such as the annualbenefits communication
 Piggy backing on existing milestone events, suchas employee picnics and celebrations toincorporate a brief update or distributeinformation
 Getting creative with onsite displays, such asaugmented realit
 
4. Test your market.
Organizations are perfectly suited to pilot programs,because in our experience employees are incrediblyforgiving of new efforts if the objective is clear andfeedback is reflected. Here are some examples:
 Test new communications tools with a subset ofyour employee population, such as the salesteam, R&D group or a specific geography. For instance, try Poll Everywhere at your next teammeeting before you use it at that global town hall.Real-time polling at events always makes for dramatic results.
 Invite a cross-section of randomly selectedemployees to help design your program. For onecompany, we shared messaging, visuals andpotential activations for a global sponsorship, andemployees helped refine the approach.
 Involve employees in the early stages of productdevelopment. We worked with a company thatinvited employees to be part of
R&D’s
 newproduct sampling.
5. Surprise and delight.
A mantra of consumer marketing, why
shouldn’t
 itapply to engaging employees? This recent AdAgearticle introduces the concept and two examples ofhow companies drive brand loyalty with unexpectedapproaches that make the recipient feel special.
What’s
 great is there are many fairly simple ways totreat your employees like VIPs:
 Provide a preview of a microsite before it goes live.
 Leverage internal social media channels to engagea group of champions through exclusive informationand opportunities.
 Host a product launch event with giveaways for employees, friends and family. Better yet, invite a(celebrity) guest to make the event truly special.The bottom line is that the lines between
“internal”
 and
“external”
 communications are blurring
 — 
employeesare both consumers and potential promoters of their 
employers’
 brands or services. Engaging them like loyalconsumers is good business sense. Go ahead and takea marketing mindset to your internal programming
 — 
the impact may surprise and delight you.
About Us
Edelman Employee Engagement helps organizationsaccelerate business performance, delivered by highlyengaged and trusted employees. For moreinformation, visit us at ee.edelman.com or follow us onTwitter at @EdelmanEE.

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