Fostering employee engagement is a critical aspect of your business, and failing to do so can result in costly turnover and lost productivity.
As your company grows, ensuring a cohesive culture and regular communication with your teams can be a challenge, especially if you expand geographically. One tool that you can use to your advantage is enterprise social networking software.
An ESN serves an internal platform for your teams to be able to collaborate and connect via social networking principles. Think of it as a company-specific social media platform for your employees.
Some of the benefits of an ESN is it is strictly confined to your company’s ecosystem, requiring employee credentials to access. It can also help break down silos by driving tangible business outcomes while connecting team members with social features such as dynamic feeds or dedicated groups for shared interests.
One of the most important aspects of utilizing an ESN is it can allow your frontline workers to feel like they are actually heard. When you are spread out across different locations, the need for centralized communication and a sense of company culture is even more important.
Consider Your Usage and Goals
Before investing in an ESN, consider the why behind your desire to implement the platform. Are you seeking to boost employee engagement, or is cross-team collaboration more important? If you want to make employee recognition a bigger element of your culture, you need to look for software options that track milestones or allow for peer shoutouts.
Other features to consider when looking for an ESN include mobile accessibility, ease of use and video/voice capability. If the system is too complicated or doesn’t function for your frontline workers, adoption won’t happen.
ESNs can also be a great source for knowledge sharing, so looking for integration capabilities so users can easily access document management systems like SharePoint or Google Drive. Look at the scalability of the platform, as you need to select a platform that can grow alongside your company.
Also, don’t make the decision of which platform to use in a vacuum. Poll your team to determine which platform features matter the most to them. What communications do your team members prefer to engage in? Do they want informal, quick conversations or are they looking for more visual content?
After piloting an option that seems viable, set measurable goals so you can see if the technology is impacting the changes you were looking for. This could be anything from increased employee recognition to fewer missed updates.
Challenges to Be Mindful Of
Employees are often reluctant to embrace change, so implementing an ESN is something that requires buy-in from the top. If your leadership team isn’t utilizing this platform to its fullest, it is unlikely those further down will do so either.
Take the time to train and provide guidelines on how this platform should be used. The addition of an ESN should be incorporated into employees’ daily workflows, rather than feeling like an unnecessary addition.
Be aware that some teams may end up utilizing the system more than others, which can create communication silos. Implement company-wide events and cross-departmental groups on the ESN to drive broader adoption.
ESNs should be an additional layer to how you communicate with your team, but they should not replace in-person staff meetings and team-building events.
Platforms Available
There are numerous messaging platforms available, such as Microsoft Teams and Slack, but if you want to take things one step further, below are some of the frontline-worker-specific platforms available, as well as their pros and cons.
Beekeeper
Beekeeper is a platform that is mobile-friendly and offers customizable templates, surveys and workflows to reduce setup time. It also provides AI-powered analytics that provide insights on engagement and operational performance. It offers multiple integrations and secure, multilingual communication for your team. Senske Services uses this platform and it has aided in improving their communication as they can share everything from job posting to Halloween costume contests.
The main con for Beekeeper is it can be more expensive than other options and may not be a good fit for companies on the smaller side. However, they do offer a free plan for up to 30 users.
Go Happy
Go Happy offers frontline messaging, feedback, engagement surveys, an engagement hub and rewards & recognition system. The hub serves as a space to share company resources and can track when employees have reviewed important information like updated safety procedures. Green Lawn Fertilizing utilizes Go Happy to text out company announcements.
This platform is better for company culture purposes than project management.
Blink
Blink is a good option for if you want to push out company-wide news, policies and updates. It can also ensure only relevant information is going out to specific employees. Push notifications ensure that field crew members actually see these updates. Users can also flag critical updates and set mandatory read settings.
It also has a communities feature where employees can bond over shared interests. Each community features its own feed, channels and resources to foster a deeper connection between team members. This can help create a sense of belonging for your frontline workers.
The main drawback of Blink is it lacks collaboration tools for teams, limited analytics and lackluster employee recognition capabilities.
Staffbase
Staffbase offers a branded app to maximize the digital employee experience, where they can access news and social feeds. The notifications can be personalized to each employee’s role and location to avoid information overload. They also offer an offline mode so frontline workers can access downloadable pages without the internet.
The main con for Staffbase is that it is cost-prohibitive for smaller organizations and has a steeper learning curve for users.
