How to Leverage the Last Mile in Communication for Employees
Three Ways to Increase Employee Retention Using the JourneyLabs™ Journey Management Platform
“Productivity in the United States is rising by about one percent annually, despite employees working more hours. Research shows that the average vacation time is down to 16 days in 2016 from 20 days in 2000, putting even more pressure on employees to maintain a healthy work-life balance.” — Deloitte
Work no longer happens just inside the office during traditional working hours. Thanks to cell phones, wearables and smart technology, workers have become accustomed to always being connected to the office. They’ve learned how to blend how they work, with communication and outreach employers moving into their personal lives as they respond to emails and phone calls in the evenings and on weekends. However, most companies have not made the same shift as they still view an employee’s personal life as separate from their work life; resulting in low employee engagement. Companies interested in changing this mental model and increasing employee retention by taking a more blended approach can start by utilizing the JourneyLabs™ journey management platform in to achieve three key aspects.
Individualize the Employee Experience
Employees want to feel like they matter at work. They want a company that cares about their success(es). Employees see themselves as more than just numbers in a computer system and they desire an experience that reflects who they are as individuals. Deloitte Insights states that there are several factors that make experience a challenge. “Companies need to update their tools to engage employees in an ongoing basis.” Rather, employers are still focused on “point-in-time engagement” versus a customized and integrated approach that can survey and inform feedback across a spectrum of departments or disciplines. The JourneyLabs Platform enables this customized integration by providing personalized actions, touchpoints and communications during the employee lifecycle. The platform also gathers feedback and communication from the employee and can alert supervisors and leaders when specific sentiments or potential employee retention risk factors arise. Employee turnover costs US companies $160 billion a year. Understanding and improving the employee experience is critical for companies. Bolstering the employee experience helps attract top talent, retain skilled employees and allows organizations to quickly gain feedback and provide interventions. Employees will therefore be supported with more meaningful communication and engagement.
“Gallup revealed that companies with high employee engagement levels outperformed companies with lower levels of engagement in customer ratings by 10%.” — Impraise
Understand and Support the Employee’s Journey
Each employee is on their own journey within their career. Beginning a successful journey with a new company is particularly important. Although two employees may have identical roles within an organization, their interests and long-term career aspirations can differ between each other. It is important for managers and leaders to understand and support their employees’ experiences. The 2018 Retention Report reveals that 11% of employees leave their jobs due to unsupportive managers. This accounts for nearly 8% out of an estimated 42 million employees due to exit their jobs in 2018. Having organizational feedback and leadership support through the employee experience is critical.
According to Wrike, 50% of high performing employees expect at least a monthly sit down with managers, but only 53% say they are getting the feedback they need from their superiors. Today, 79% of companies survey their employees annually. The JourneyLabs journey management platform guides employees through a personalized path throughout the various aspects of the employee lifecycle at the company. Along these paths, the JourneyLabs Platform gathers feedback and communication which allows organizations to observe points of employee onboarding, disengagement, provides points of intervention and supports a complete employee experience.
Provide Communication Solutions
Communication is a key aspect of employee engagement. Employees want the ability to communicate through a variety of channels throughout their workplace experience. The platform analyzes this communication and helps identify areas of risk or disengagement based on sentiments and words expressed by the employee. By reaching out to employees who may not be as engaged,the platform can indicate other systemic concern(s) within an organization and identify those most at-risk, using natural language and AI. With individualized outreach, the company is better poised to address these issues through customized and immediate communications.
Dawn Raquel Jensen is Head of Creative Marketing at JourneyLabs. A Florida native, Dawn is a graduate of the University of Central Florida (UCF) and Defense Information School (DINFOS). She is a social business, digital media and marketing strategist for start-ups and first stage businesses, and has been known to travel some distance for good BBQ and iced tea. For more information about JourneyLabs or to set up a demo of the JourneyLabs platform, email us: info@journeylabs.io.
Originally published at insights.journeylabs.io on November 19, 2018.
