Does Social Media Really Boost Employee Engagement?
Employee Engagement and social media
![]() |
Figure 1: Employees Engagement and Social Media |
Companies can have their own HR departments using social media to improve day-to-day operations at work. With the right platforms, employees can stay on top of activities, communicate effectively with team members and reduce the number of emails sent. Research from McKinsey shows that social media can increase productivity by up to 25% by including emails on social media.
In addition, social HR can provide a platform for colleagues to praise their peers. When employees feel valued, and productivity and satisfaction increase.
Encouraging efficient employees to share accomplishments, work experience and successful projects is an important step for them to find purpose in their work. By taking ownership of their efforts, team members can become more involved in the work while enhancing the organization's brand. LinkedIn posts highlighting an employee project can be shared and viewed by clients, job seekers and other important audiences.
Global practice in the
context of employee engagement
According to a global ORC
survey conducted in 2014, the inclusion of workers has been steadily increasing
over the years.
![]() |
Figure 02: International practice in the context of employee engagement in the index |
These improvements have been demonstrated in all countries except Switzerland and Singapore Netherland, Sweden and Austria (ORC international survey, 2014).
Employee Involvement in
International Companies
The concept of employee
engagement has been identified by the founders - Google (Larry Page and Sergey
Brin) as the basis for making Google a great place to work by informing their
employees. Google keeps people motivated by giving them the freedom to manage
their work in a flexible way that allows employees to work from home when
needed, use flexible schedules, and increase the amount of time employees earn
each year or allow employees to take their time in hours and not days. Google
ensures that employees are provided with the most inspiring, flexible
workplaces to think outside the box and generate new ideas for achieving
Google’s goals (Culture Summit.com, 2019).
Figure 03: Google Office
Environment
Source: Andrea Loubier,
2017
The conclusion
The notion of employee
involvement that has changed in recent times is a positive attitude held by
employees about the organization and its values. The employees involved lead to
individual performance, increased productivity, retention, customer loyalty and
ultimately profit in the organization’s operations. Involved leadership plays a
major role in employee engagement as it is unlikely that there will be people
involved in organizations where no leadership is involved. At the same time, it
is very important to have a good organizational culture and job creation in
order to achieve employee participation. Employee engagement should be a
continuous process of learning, improving, measuring, and acting as shown
throughout the article that employee engagement is a key factor in improving
the organization’s performance through individual productivity.
List of References
Daniel, E., Isaac, E. and Janet, A. (2017). Influence of Facebook usage on employee productivity: A case of university of cape coast staff. African Journal of Business Management, 11(6), pp.110-116.
<https://engageforsuccess.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/ORC-Global-Perspectives-2015-worldwide-trends-in-employee-engagement.pdf>
Flynn J (2011). How social media affects HR: Uses, abuses and selfprotection. Retrieved September 15, 2016 from http://docplayer.net/42058377-Impact-of-social-networking-on-employ ee-performance.html
Gunther, R., 2020. SmartBrief. [Online]
Available at: https://www.smartbrief.com/original/2020/03/faq-improving-employee-engagement-through-social-media[Accessed 19 august 2021].
Thilina, I think it does boost employee engagement.
ReplyDeleteInternal social media has emerged as the new edge for internal communication and to achieve employee engagement. Utilizing internal social media enhances conversations across departments, regions, and different hierarchical levels and facilitates knowledge sharing and communication between employees and management. The companies should use a variety of internal social media channels and get the employee engagement and encourage leaders to actively listen and respond to employees’ comments and suggestions. The company should provide clear policies regarding use of social media and encourage employees engagement.
DeleteThank you Sunith, I really appreciate your feedback.
Agreed with your conclusion.
ReplyDeleteRecognition is one way to increase employee engagement through social media. Many people are disengaged with their employers because they do not receive feedback or recognition for a job well done. Managers and supervisors can use social media to make recognition a simple, streamlined, and archivable task. It also gives employees a quick and easy way to see how others in the company are doing. It also gives employees a quick and easy way to see how others in the organization are making a difference. This data can be used for future performance evaluations or simply to make recognition and feedback more effective in the present.
Nice work Thilina. Appreciate your work..
Thank you Umesh.
DeleteThe strategy of engaging employees in social media is not that complicated in today's context. Simply through increasing employee engagement in social media can expand organizational social reach. At the same time, it allows employees to show their company pride in industry expertise. On the other hand Studies show that social networks at workplace can boost employee performance, especially if leadership is engaged. Thankyou for sharing.
ReplyDeleteYes Rukmali, thank you for your feedback.
DeleteYes, Companies can use social media as a tool to improve employee engagement, reinforce company culture and effectively teach team members new skills to increase business outcomes. HR departments can use social media to give employees a voice to share feedback, views and opinions on the organization. Social media makes recognition a simple, streamlined, and archivable task for managers and supervisors.
ReplyDeletethank you Oshadha, for the valuable feedback.
DeleteAgreed Thilina, the usage of social media to increase employee engagement makes sense, given the prevalence of sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and even LinkedIn and the millions of users who log-in each day. While not all employers are sold on the idea of leaning on social media for engagement aims, taking certain steps to comprise these digital platforms in engagement plans has confirmed beneficial for some companies.
ReplyDeleteThank you Nadun, really appreciate your feedback.
DeleteAt present the available popularity of sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and even LinkedIn, and the millions of users who check in each day, using social media to improve employee engagement makes logical. While not all companies are convinced that using social media to achieve engagement goals is a good idea, some businesses have found that incorporating these digital channels into engagement initiatives has been effective.
ReplyDeleteThe discussed subject is provided adequate information. Thilina, thank you for sharing such a useful topic.
All the best
Thank You Praveen, Much appreciate your feedback.
DeleteCompanies can use social media as a tool to improve employee engagement, reinforce company culture, and effectively teach team members new skills to increase business outcomes. HR departments can use social media to give employees a voice to share feedback, views and opinions about the organization. Social media can allow managers to reach all employees, remote or not, and improve internal collaboration.
ReplyDeleteThank You Nadeeshan.
DeleteGood argument Thilina. Social media has undoubtedly shaped the world and changed human behavior over the last decade. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn are all popular social media sites with millions of daily users. While not all employers are on board with using social media for employee engagement, some have found it to be beneficial.
ReplyDeleteThank you Kanchana for your valuable feedback.
DeleteInteresting article Thilina.some creative employers are turning to digital gear to assist with the engagement of the personnel, inclusive of social media strategies. using social media to enhance worker engagement makes feel, given the superiority of web sites like facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or even LinkedIn and the hundreds of thousands of customers who log-in every day.
ReplyDeleteThank you Bhashitha for your valuable feedback.
DeleteOrganizations utilize the Social media as an instrument to give representatives a voice to share feedback, perspectives and assessments on the association, further develop representative commitment, build up organization culture and viably show colleagues new abilities to expand business results.
ReplyDeleteThank you Gangani for your valuable feedback.
Delete