HR gets communication and the financial value of cultivating relationships between employees and the leadership.
But for non-comms leaders, putting themselves ‘out there’—for instance, on the social networks—might not be a priority.
Unless, of course, they understand the ROI. But how do you show your executives the positive financial impact of their engagement with employees?
You can dig into your ESN data with a people-analytics tool.
Furthermore, 65% of professionals whose organisation has a strong people analytics culture say that business performance is strong, according to one global survey.
With access to a people analytics tool, you get the insight you need to build an iron-clad communications plan that you can tie to healthy financial returns.
Let’s take a look at how that works.
What are people analytics and people analytics tools?
Probably the best way to describe people analytics is the process of studying employee’s workplace activities—from overcoming work challenges to creating opportunities—and using that data to achieve and sustain business success.
Traditionally, to process the people data for communication planning, HR used analytics tools (e.g., Excel spreadsheets) and a reactive approach.
These days people analytic tools provide HR with sophisticated, real-time predictive analytics, allowing them to build, monitor and measure more proactive internal communications strategies.
That includes enterprise social network (ESN) analytics. Your ESN analytics tool is the window into your organization’s communication and business health. Here are some key examples.
Use ESN people analytics to prove engagement
If HR wants to get not-so-eager leaders onboard with employee engagement, having proof to back up a strategy is critical.
Maybe an organization is about to implement a significant change (e.g., adopting a new technology or restructuring departments). The change management strategy might include amping up leadership’s employee engagement.
Leaders start sharing information with groups, such as posts on Workplace from Meta, providing employees support throughout the change transition. Ultimately, their interactions have a positive financial impact—from increasing staff retention to bolstering productivity.
Using the ESN analytics tool, HR can show leadership how employees are responding to their interactions. That includes understanding the mood of individuals and groups then adjusting communications to ensure continued employee satisfaction.
Without these real-time people analytics, you risk 1) leadership not getting onboard when it matters most, and 2) not understanding if their engagement is working.
Cultivate employee experience and engagement
Increasing employee engagement is critical. But what about employee experience? Here’s something to consider:
“Companies that invest in employee experience outperform those that dont. They’re four times as profitable,” says Jacob Morgan, author of The Employee Experience Advantage (Wiley, 2017). That includes focusing on the organization’s culture, its technology and the workplace surroundings, according to Morgan.
Whether you’re looking to hone employee engagement or cultivate an experiential work environment, your ESN analytics tool will play a pivotal role.
For instance, if employee engagement is down or there’s an uptick in voluntary turnover, morale (and productivity) can drop.
However, instantly understanding employee sentiment allows HR to identify and get head of the negative outcomes. With the analytics, they can continue to refine their communications strategy, including monitoring and measuring leadership-employee interactions.
On the flip side, the analytics tool will show leaders how their social network communications are meeting strategic goals—such as motivating employees to increase productivity.
Lastly, the ESN analytics tool allows HR to easily combine and analyze complex data layers. The HR managers can use these insights to find correlations between leadership and employee engagement and profit outcomes.
Using people analytics to steer performance
To cultivate and sustain employee engagement, you must have tools that can quickly and accurately analyze your ESN data.
Furthermore, the data-based insights will help you set the profit wheels in motion—increasing engagement, improving customer service, and getting ahead of the competition.