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Where Video And Mobile Intersect To Drive Employee Engagement

Forbes Communications Council
POST WRITTEN BY
Sara Larsen

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Studies have shown that employee engagement has a direct correlation to positive business outcomes, which leaves many businesses asking: What best practices can we use to boost employee engagement, and how will that positively impact our business?

First, let’s break down what best-in-class employee engagement looks like. It’s when employees feel passion for their jobs, are committed and put in the enthusiastic efforts to achieve business goals. Results can be shown through more sales, outpacing the competition and seeing higher employee retention and satisfaction.

Reaching higher levels of employee engagement goes beyond just team-building activities, communication applications and staff meetings that discuss the direction of the business and each employee’s individual contributions. Today, employee engagement is the staple to a business’s success, because it drives performance and ladders up to better problem solving and decision making.

To really understand the value of employee engagement and, more specifically, how it can be improved, it’s critical to understand how it has changed and the driving forces behind it.

We Live In A Tech-Driven World

Our personal and professional lives are now driven by technology, and often by a mobile device that’s within arm’s reach at all times. Today’s workforce is also composed of a large population of millennials. This is a generation that grew up alongside technology, and I’ve found that the best way to engage millennial employees is by building a tech-driven strategy that integrates many digital elements, such as mobile and video. This strategy is also important for acquiring top talent, as the majority of millennials consider the use of technology when evaluating current or future employers.

Technology is changing how we consume content. Video alone is a dynamic communication medium because it is visually engaging, elicits emotion and is attention-grabbing. And with more mobile users in the workforce, employers need to be where their employees are to deliver content in a way that’s natural to them.

Mobile devices have disrupted how we communicate with one another, and at Brightcove, a video cloud services provider, we’re seeing organizations leveraging more mobile strategies to boost employee engagement. While many people who use their smartphones at work for basic tasks like emails and texting, we’re finding that they’re also engaging in more complex communication practices, including watching the live streaming of an event, uploading a video to social or using video chatting.

Video itself is a more expressive, authentic form of content that allows employees to uplevel their communications efforts in order to interact with fellow employees, customers and prospects as if they were standing in front of them. I’ve found that the reason many sales and marketing teams have turned to video over the last decade is because of its ability to form a human connection and resonate with audiences. Employee engagement should be no different, and video can be used as a part of all business practices — both internal and external.

How To Execute An Effective Strategy

Building an effective employee engagement strategy is similar to any other business initiative: establishing goals, understanding audiences, finding the tools and resources required, and accurately measuring success. Mobile communications and video content are important elements of this strategy, as companies are supporting the familiar communication practices of their employees.

Companies can do this by creating a mobile platform or application where employees can find all the necessary resources, whether onboarding videos or information about a new product the company implemented. We’re also seeing more companies leveraging livestreaming to bring employees together, and these videos should be accessible via mobile devices so that employees can view them wherever they are.

Video is a highly measurable form of content, allowing a business to identify and optimize points of engagement and see what is most viewed and what is watched next. This insight helps businesses not only get a pulse on their employees, but also learn how they can deepen engagement further.

To measure successful employee engagement, you must look at how your company’s goals are being achieved. Are you seeing a boost in productivity as a result of more effective engagement methods? Higher employee satisfaction? Lower employee churn? These are all great ways to analyze how engagement strategies are working and whether these strategies are allowing employees to feel more engaged in their work.

Employee engagement is now a pillar of success, as a business is only as strong as the employees behind it. When employees are properly engaged, they’re able to look at the whole of the company and better understand their purpose and where and how they fit in. It’s critical to understand technology and content shifts to create an engagement strategy today, and I believe mobile communications and video content are at the forefront of that shift. The businesses that incorporate these elements in an engaging and measurable way are set to make the biggest impact on improving employee engagement.

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