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6 Ways Enterprises Are Missing Out Without Employee Advocacy 1

6 Ways Enterprises Are Missing Out Without …...2018/02/06  · 6 Ways Enterprises Are Missing Out Without Employee Advocacy 3 __ Introduction Many enterprises are still wary of employees

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Page 1: 6 Ways Enterprises Are Missing Out Without …...2018/02/06  · 6 Ways Enterprises Are Missing Out Without Employee Advocacy 3 __ Introduction Many enterprises are still wary of employees

6 Ways Enterprises Are Missing Out Without Employee Advocacy

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6 Ways Enterprises Are Missing Out Without Employee Advocacy

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__ Contents

Introduction 3

You’re Falling Behind Your Competition 5

You’re Limiting Your Brand 6

You’re Missing Sales Opportunities 7

You’re Not Fully Engaging Your Workforce 8

You’re Not Maximizing Communications 9

You’re Not Delivering a Great Digital Experience 10

The Missed Opportunity for Enterprises 12

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__ Introduction

Many enterprises are still wary of employees sharing on social networks. They claim

they’re going through a digital transformation, but they’re not allowing usage of

communication channels that employees expect.

There are many benefits to getting employees to share corporate content on social

networks, but let’s face it - it’s easier if you don’t allow employees to use social media at

work.

Why is this?

First off, there are compliance and governance issues. Legal needs to get involved in how

employees communicate externally, and that requires a lot of work. How do you create a

paper trail of what’s getting shared? Do you need to create a policy?

Second, there’s too much monitoring required. What are employees saying? You need to

make sure that employees aren’t saying something wrong. Are they sharing

inappropriately? How are people responding? You don’t want a communication crisis on

your hands.

So, the easiest way around this is not to allow employees to share corporate content on

social media at all, unless you send emails out specifically asking them to. But this

creates other challenges - where’s the visibility into who opened, clicked, and shared the

specified content? Who’s interested in doing this? You’re blasting employees with

messages they might not want to receive instead of having them act on their own. This is

also very hard to report on, and to show the value of these activities to the C-Suite.

But guess what? Employees are already sharing corporate content and using social,

whether you allow it or not. They are consumers just like anyone else, and networks like

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Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are where they create relationships - personally and

professionally.

When consumers need to understand something, they don’t turn to advertising for

answers. They go to friends, colleagues, and family, whom they trust more. Employees

are the same. Restricting access to these important networks impedes the exchange of

information they need to do their jobs properly. It also affects how employees stay

engaged at work, and doesn’t match their expectations of a modern workplace

experience.

There are many reasons why you should open up internal and external communication to

your employees, and encourage them to share information. This is the basis of employee

advocacy, the convergence of internal and external communication delivered in a

millennial workplace experience.

Leading firms have already adopted employee advocacy, and are using it to improve

internal communications, increase brand value, and deliver a better workplace

experience. Now let’s dig deeper into this - what value are you missing by not having an

employee advocacy solution in the enterprise?

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01 You’re falling behind your competition

Since 50% of employees already share about their employer on social media, some

enterprises have started capitalizing on the trend and encouraging more employees to

share. However, many enterprises haven’t adopted a formal employee advocacy program

yet. Here are stats about employee advocacy adoption:

• Interest in employee advocacy has grown 191% since 2013, with 45% of

respondents naming it a top external objective (Source)

• 16.6% of all firms have implemented a formal employee advocacy program

(Source)

• 53.3% of all firms are either piloting or considering options for employee

engagement on social media

• 31% of high-growth firms now have a formal employee advocacy program in place

• 33% of employers encourage their employees to use social media to share news

and information about the organization (Source)

• Of the employers that encourage social media sharing:

o 55% provide readily accessible tools for employees to use in social media

o 50% provide messages about the employer for employees to use in social

media

o 42% provide easy-to-understand guidelines to employees for using social

media

o 39% ask employees to stay alert to social media postings about the employer

o 37% provide training for how to use social media properly

o 35% provide access to social media at work

o 35% provide updates about changes in social media so that employees can

stay current on the latest tools and uses

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• Best-In-Class companies place emphasis on continuous employee learning, with

60% providing their employees with a central content hub for self-learning

(compared to 49% of all others), and 35% providing mobile access to corporate

content (vs. 29% of all others.) (Source)

• Best-In-Class companies are 60% more likely to give their employees

opportunities for “microlearning”

By not having or not thinking about implementing an employee advocacy solution at your

enterprise, you’ll soon fall behind your competition.

02 You’re limiting your brand

Getting your employees to be more engaged on social media clearly provides benefits

from a brand awareness and recognition standpoint. By not providing social messaging

and blocking access to social media at work, you’re missing out on the following:

• One in five employees (21%) is estimated to be an employee advocate, and

another 33% have high potential to be employee advocates (Source)

• 79% of firms surveyed reported more online visibility once implementing a formal

employee advocacy program. 65% reported increased brand recognition (Source)

• Measurable benefits include:

o Increased web traffic (44.9%)

o Better search engine ranking (32.4%)

o Increased content downloads (24.6%)

• Employees have on average 10x more connections than brand channels do

(Source)

• Messages shared by employees went 561% further than the same message

shared on a brand owned channel

• Brand messages are re-shared an average of 24x when distributed by an

employee vs. the brand

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• More than eight-in-10 global respondents (83%) say they completely or

somewhat trust the recommendations of friends and family (Source)

Since word of mouth has always been the best kind of marketing, setting up a solution

that makes it easy for employees to find and share the right corporate content can help

improve your brand value.

03 You’re missing sales opportunities

Employee advocacy solutions can help on a few

fronts. The more obvious benefit is getting your

employees to share corporate content on social

media. But there are also enablement benefits by

providing easily accessible corporate content to your

sales team when they need it most. Here are missed

sales opportunities by not having an employee

advocacy solution:

• Nearly 64% of advocates in a formal program credited employee advocacy with

attracting and developing new business, and nearly 45% attribute new revenue

streams to employee advocacy (Source)

• 27% of high growth firms (over 20% revenue growth) reported that an employee

advocacy program shortened their sales cycle.

• 72.6% of salespeople using social selling as part of their sales process

outperformed their sales peers and exceeded quota 23% more often (Source)

• 73% of Best-in-Class organizations have a centralized content library to help their

team sell in different situations (Source)

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• Users of sales enablement content average 69% more revenue growth year-over-

year compared to their peers who do not use sales enabled content.

Having the right corporate content accessible through web and mobile can help sales

reps stay informed with current offers, get ready for presentations, and maximize the

likelihood of closing deals.

04 You’re not fully engaging your workforce

Employees who aren’t fully engaged cost your enterprise a significant amount of money

every year. It’s estimated that 71% of employees aren’t fully engaged, which is a big

concern for enterprises. Here’s what you’re missing without employee advocacy from an

employee engagement standpoint:

• One in five employees (21%) is estimated to be an employee advocate, and

another 33% have high potential to be employee advocates (Source)

• 39% have shared praise or positive comments online about their employer

• Almost 86% of employees participating in an employee advocacy program

credited their involvement on social media as having a positive impact on their

career.

• Socially engaged employees are more optimistic, inspired, connected, and

tenured (Source)

o 27% more likely to feel optimistic about their companies’ future

o 20% more likely to feel inspired

o 20% more likely to stay at their companies

o 15% more likely to connect to co-workers beyond their core teams

• 79% of job applicants are using social media for their job search (Source)

• This increases to 86% for applicants who are in the first 10 years of their career.

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• 69% of applicants will not take a job with a company that has a bad reputation –

even if they’re currently unemployed.

• 94% of applicants are likely to apply for a job if the employer actively manages

their employer brand.

• Increasing employee engagement investments by 10% can increase profits by

$2,400/employee, per year.

• 78% of job seekers say that ratings and reviews from those on the inside

(employees) are influential when deciding where to work.

Engagement and retention are on everyone’s minds at enterprises. Having happy

employees who are positive about their employer not only helps with overall productivity

and morale, but also with attracting top talent through social media.

05 You’re not maximizing communications

Although employee advocacy solutions help employees become more active on social

media, there are several other core benefits of having a successful solution in place. The

biggest one is employee communications. According to Weber Shandwick, employers are

not effectively communicating to employees:

• Only 42% of employees know enough to explain to other what their employer

does

• Only 37% understand their employer’s goals

• Only 29% say that managers frequently communicate with them

• Only 28% say that their employer listens and responds well to customers

• Only 26% say that their manager listens and responds well to them

• Only 26% say their employer surveys employees every 1-2 years on how well it

communicates with employees

• Only 25% say their employer does a good job of keeping them informed

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• Only 24% say their employer communicates frequently with employees

Employee disengagement costs

enterprises over $11billion a year. One of

the top contributors to improving

disengagement is communication. By

adopting an employee advocacy solution,

you’ll be improving the dissemination of

corporate content to your employees,

keeping them informed and engaged.

06 You’re not delivering a great digital experience

You are constantly competing for the attention of your employees. With all the

interruptions that are happening in the digital world, why would an employee pay

attention to an archaic communications system?

Internal communications is not matching the expectations of today’s consumer. And

guess what? Your employees are consumers too. They’re used to receiving information:

• From friends and colleagues on social networks

• From web, video, and visual content

• In bite-sized communication

• That’s mobile friendly

• Anytime, anywhere, at their choosing

Let’s look at how the communication landscape has changed:

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• On average people check their phones 150 times per day and spend 177 minutes

using them (Source)

• 91% of users turn to their phones for ideas in the middle of a task

• US adults spend 2 hours and 51 minutes per day on “non-voice” activities on

mobile devices

• 2.307 billion people are active social media users (Source)

• 1.968 billion people are active mobile social users

• 10 years ago, only 7% of the US population used one or more social networking

sites. Now that figure has increased almost tenfold to 65%

• Of those who use the internet, a massive

majority of 76% of Americans use social

media.

• Most generations spend more than 5

hours a week consuming online content,

with some consuming over 20 hours a

week. (Source)

• The most popular time to consume

content for Millennials and Gen X’ers are

late evening (8PM-11:59PM)

• 52% of content consumption happens on

mobile, with the majority being from

Millennials and Gen X’ers

• 90% of people use multiple screens sequentially (Source)

• 47% of consumers who use two or more screens at the same time do so “out of

habit” (Source)

• In 10 years, a $10,000 investment in design-centric companies would have yielded

returns 228% greater than the same investment in the S&P (Source)

• 88% of online consumers are less likely to return to a site after a bad experience

• Judgments on website credibility are 75% based on a website’s overall aesthetics

• First impressions are 94% design related

• Given 15 minutes to consume content, 66% of people would rather read

something beautifully designed than something plain (Source)

• Millennials are the largest generation after the “soon-to-retire” Baby Boomers

(Source)

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• By 2020, Millennials will be 50% of the global workforce

• Millennials have grown up with broadband, smartphones, laptops and social

media being the norm and expect instant access to information

• Millennials are the first generation to enter the workplace with a better grasp of a

key business tool than more senior workers

• Millennials tend to be uncomfortable with rigid corporate structures and turned

off by information silos

• Millennials want a management style and corporate culture that is markedly

different from anything that has gone before

• The companies that have already been the most successful in attracting talented

millennials are naturally innovative employers who are never restrained by “how

things used to be done”

The communication landscape has changed. The millennial workforce expects

information to be available instantly and delivered through a great mobile, social

experience. If you’re not actively evaluating an employee advocacy solution, you’ll be

missing out on bridging this technology gap that your workforce craves.

__ The missed opportunity for enterprises

There’s a missed opportunity if marketing and communications teams don’t get executive

buy-in for an employee advocacy solution. As we discussed, there are many benefits

across departments of having a formal employee advocacy solution in place.

Everyone knows that there are diminishing returns from using brand channels. The

visibility rate of organic social media has gone down significantly, which has led

marketing teams to invest more in social media advertising. However, there is an increase

in ad blockers and click fraud, which is counter-intuitive to the investment.

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On top of that, word of mouth from employees is more trusted than anything else when

it comes to delivering financial earnings and operational performance, business practices

and crisis handling, or treatment of employees and customers.

But trying to encourage employees to use legacy systems or ask them to share through

email is too manual. Doing this type of work repeatedly is very hard, and requires a

significant amount of human capital, which could be one of the reasons why many

enterprises haven’t tried employee advocacy yet.

Employee advocacy addresses challenges that are at the core of your business strategy.

Communication is one of the top contributors to workplace experience and for improving

employee engagement.

There are solutions that help bridge the internal and external communication gap for

large enterprises. A good solution would provide employees with a centralized content

library and a millennial experience.

The first step is to address

communication challenges and

improve workflows. Having a

solution that provides the right

corporate content and message

to employees, in a social, mobile,

and visual way is imperative.

Employees need to be able to

access corporate content when

they need it, not forced on them

through email blasts.

The second step is for that solution to show and suggest what messages are reserved for

internal purposes, and what is encouraged to be shared externally. This experience needs

to be seamless, and will ensure compliance.

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As a leading enterprise, you don’t want to be missing out. A true employee advocacy

solution creates one central location for employees to stay informed and engaged with

company initiatives.

Isn’t that something you’d be interested in?

Learn how PostBeyond can help modernize

communications at your enterprise by

requesting a demo.

REQUEST DEMO