Employee Engagement in the Social Media Age

by Krista Haley, Senior Vice President

From our vantage point, we can see that considerably greater emphasis is being placed by companies today on internal communications and employee engagement. Could this be due to something that at first seems unrelated: social media?

Because of social media, and the Internet in general, rank and file employees now have a voice, when this was not feasible before. We want to hear from company employees, and we tend to believe what they say. According to the 2014 Edelman Trust Barometer, employees are the most credible spokespeople for the company—trusted more than the company CEO, and significantly more than the media spokesperson.

Companies cannot control what their employees say, on social media or elsewhere. But they can endeavor to have an engaged workforce that feels it has open channels of communication back to management. Employees want to feel that their employer is transparent, and believe they will be heard when they have a complaint. An engaged workforce is less likely to feel the need to air grievances outside the company. According to research, when internal employee communications is strong, the employee “spokesperson” is more likely to have good things to say, or will attempt to resolve his or her issues inside.