How to help with employee voice through intranet software
It’s no secret that an engaged workforce provides huge benefits for employees and employers alike. Making sure that your employees feel like they are heard is an essential first step in enhancing workplace productivity. Keeping them engaged, and having a transparent relationship that includes active listening, prevents issues from forming down the line.
As many workplaces continue with hybrid working strategies, teams are often spread out across cities, countries, and even continents. Communication is key to ensuring that global enterprises create positive partnerships between their workforce and the organization, building trust and strengthening relationships.
Employee engagement is a pillar stone of any well-functioning communications strategy. Listening to your employee’s needs is crucial for enhancing productivity and innovation. It empowers internal influencers and helps bring new perspectives to the workplace. Those employees that feel listened to are more effective in their roles and much happier, which also has an impact on retention rates within the organization.
Tackling disengagement
Disengagement is the opposite of a healthy work environment. When employees don’t feel like they are being listened to, or don’t care enough about their workplace to even try to make their voice heard, it is indicative of a wider problem.
According to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace: 2022 Report, disengaged employees cost $7.8 trillion in lost productivity, around 11% of global GDP. The report also found that only 21% are engaged at work, with the remainder either not engaged or actively disengaged. But how is this ‘living for the weekend’ mantra genuinely problematic for employers? Well, unhappy employees can be critical, dissident, and unresponsive, with this overtly negative and demotivating attitude possibly spreading further to other members of the team if left to fester. So, what is the best way to tackle this potentially poisonous chalice?
Think about it. When was the last time that you felt ignored? Whether in a work environment or a less professional setting, strained communication is never pleasant. When we listen to each other, we gain a new perspective and understanding of the situation. The same is true with employee relationships. Listening to disengaged employees about their personal experiences, and taking advice on ways to improve the situation, can potentially turn it around. Quite simply, listening makes people feel like they matter.
And the good thing is, intranet software can help with this.
How intranet software helps the employee voice
Organizations of all sizes need to listen to the views of employees, to really understand a diverse range of wants and needs. It is a critical step when creating a thriving enterprise culture and should not be overlooked.
The CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development) says, “Employee voice is the way people communicate their views to their employer and influence matters that affect them at work. For employers, effective voice contributes to building trust with employees, innovation, productivity, and organizational improvement. For employees, self-expression in voice often results in feeling valued, increased job satisfaction, greater influence, and better opportunities for development. Employee voice is important in creating inclusive working environments too.”
With many organizations now operating remotely or on a hybrid schedule, the traditional office communications and ‘chats by the water cooler’ fade into the background. It becomes more difficult for employees to get their voices heard, particularly if they aren’t even in the same country or time zone as their employer. But with the many advances in technology over the past decade, we are arguably socially more connected than ever, and the professional environment is no different. Intranet software is the answer.
The intranet is a central hub for all your internal communications. It provides a digital workplace where everyone can connect and innovate, share expertise, or simply socialize with each other. Providing tools and software that makes it easy for employers to listen to the workforce essentially gives employees their voice back. This makes the internal communicator's job so much easier, and tackles disengagement head-on. Through the use of Pulse surveys, analytics, recognition, and sharing, accessing the opinions of the global workforce is easier than ever before. And employees that feel listened to are much more likely to be empowered, motivated, creative, and loyal to the organization.
