The effect that employee engagement can have on a company’s bottom line is staggering. According to a Kenexa study of 64 businesses, net revenue doubled when proactive measures were taken to improve employee engagement. Furthermore, a Towers Watson study also revealed significant increase in company margins when employees were engaged with their company culture via the sharing of ideas and collaboration.
Improving engagement starts by recognizing our common traits, those human desires and ambitions known to us all, then creating programs that nurture and motivate us to excel. Businesses are taking the concept of customer loyalty programs into the workplace, implementing their structures into company websites, Intranet portals and internal communities. This sparks employee participation in company learning programs, including incentives for sharing and collaborating with others in the organization.
A CMO at Bluewolf consulting, Corinne Sklar, emphasizes the importance of engaging employees in a real-time conversation that leads to the sharing of ideas, according to a CMS Wire post, “Gamification Is Here and It Means Business.” “Customer engagement begins with employee engagement. To drive greater real-time collaboration and knowledge sharing among our employees, we needed a comprehensive program that would appeal to our entire team — and extend organically into the corporate culture. Employees stepped up to earn points for sharing blog posts and white papers to sharing social media links as well as offering “thought leadership.” Has it worked? Bluewolf noted a 153% increase in the traffic to their website, plus a whopping 57% uptick on their internal platforms. Indeed, the right incentive program can help improve employee involvement and the bottom line.
