Presentation made at the inaugural InDigital Connect conference at The Apex, Bury St Edmunds on 1 May 2014

1. Digital employee
engagement
Niall Cook, Refocus Associates
#connectIDEA

2. Refocus
“We help organisations use social technologies to
engage staff, collaborate more effectively and improve
productivity”

3. Niall Cook
 More than 15 years of digital communication experience
 Principal of Refocus and Sociagility
 Focus on digital internal and corporate communications
 Pioneer in organisational use of social technologies
 Client experience includes Balfour Beatty, Bonhams, Cisco,
Groupon, Legal & General, Sheffield University, Thistle
Hotels
 Services include training, consulting and support to HR,
OD, IT, IC and other professionals
 Author of Enterprise 2.0: How social software will change
the future of work
www.niallcook.com
niall@refocuslimited.com
@niallcook
07912 437 573

4. Employee
engagement
matters

5. What is engagement?
 An “engaged employee” is one who is fully absorbed by and
enthusiastic about their work and take positive action to
further the organisation’s reputation and interests
 “Engaged employees” contribute discretionary effort for their
organisations
 “Engaged employees” find meaning in their work

6. Engagement = productivity
 Productivity loss due to active disengagement
• $450–550bn per yearUSA
• $151–186bn per yearGermany
• $83–112bn per yearUK
Source: Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2011–2012
Based on 230,000 employees in 142 countries

7. Engagement = performance

8. State of employee engagement

9. Communication
matters

10. Communication = productivity
 40% of an employee’s productivity is directly determined by
the amount of communication with others whilst discovering,
gathering and internalising information
 Employees with the most extensive digital networks are 7%
more productive than their colleagues
Source: Bulleit, B. 2006. Effectively managing team conflict.

11. Communication = engagement
 Improved interactions
 Greater trust
 Better understanding
 Improved efficiency
 Better performance
 Gratification
Companies that
communicate effectively
are
4x
more likely to have
high levels of employee
engagement

12. Effective communication matters

13. Digital
matters

14. New opportunities to engage
 Employees want to engage more with senior teams via social
media channels…
 …40% of managers would be happy to reciprocate
 A fifth of employees would share company news if they
thought friends and family might be interested
 But two-thirds have no involvement in their company’s social
media activity
 And more than 25% are not even allowed to access social
networks
Source: hyphen workplace solutions

15. Here come the natives
 Increasing numbers of digital natives (born after 1982) are entering
the workforce
 They will operate best in open, collaborative, socially-mediated
environments
 They will expect to use their own technology and
mobile devices for work and
seek out employers that will
let them
 The majority of content they
consume is created by ‘people
like them’

16. Challenges for organisations
 The types of communication that effectively engage
employees are shifting
 More dynamic digital experiences will have a higher impact
on employee engagement
 Imperative to create real-time, two-way dialogue using social
tools – internally and externally

17. Employee
ambassador
programmes

18. Employee ambassadors
 Actively share news about the organisation
 Use social media and word of mouth
 Know how and why to share
 Recognised and rewarded
 Volunteers
 Passionate and enthusiastic

19. Making it happen
 Find hidden talent
 Include senior management
 Create policies and guidance
 Develop an “ambassador toolkit”
 Provide training
 Constant communication
 Put the intranet at the centre
 Support with social media

20. Sharing the approved stuff

21. Benefits
 Employees want to be
passionate and proud
 It makes work better
 Evangelises the brand
 Creates conversation
and community
 Encourages creativity

22. In summary
 Employee engagement can impact on performance and
productivity
 Effective communication can impact on employee
engagement and productivity
 The types of communication that effectively engage
employees are shifting
 Employee ambassador programmes provide an opportunity to
engage a digitally native workforce and benefit the brand

23. Let’s talk some more
www.niallcook.com
niall@refocuslimited.com
@niallcook
07912 437 573
#connectIDEA