If you could be a fly on the wall for the water cooler chatter of your Millennial employees (or get a peek at their digital conversations), what do you think you’d learn? If you’re still sending emails requesting they share corporate content from legacy systems like intranets and internal networks but are getting little response, it’s likely something like this:
*Crickets*
*More crickets*
That’s right. They’re probably not doing it, let alone talking about it. Frustrating? Certainly. But there could be a reason. Millennials—and, frankly, most employees in this digital, mobile age—expect their corporate communications experiences to be similar to their experiences as a consumer when it comes to things like accessibility, ease of use, etc. If sharing content is not simple—or if it’s not clear what is allowed to be shared versus what needs to be kept in-house—it’s not going to be a top of mind activity for a workforce that’s always connected and easily distracted.
That’s the problem, so what’s the solution? The answer is employee advocacy, and it involves a lot more than just finding ways to get your employees to share the content you produce. It’s about the drive to increase brand understanding, the desire to teach them about the company mission, and the process of humanizing your brand internally—just to name a few.
Really, employee advocacy is a lot like onboarding a new hire—and it hinges on something data shows many corporations are struggling with: Engagement. Seventy-one percent of Millennials in particular, in fact, report that they’re not engaged in the workplace. We can do better than that.
A new eBook from PostBeyond (Evolving Enterprise Communications for Today’s Millennial Mindset) breaks down what employee advocacy is today, what it should be, and how to get your business from point A to point B. We’ve covered the high points and offered our insight over on The Marketing Scope, and we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Read: Want to Nail Internal Enterprise Communications? Start with Employee Advocacy
Photo Credit: trendnewsb Flickr via Compfight cc
Shelly Kramer is a Principal Analyst and Founding Partner at Futurum Research. A serial entrepreneur with a technology centric focus, she has worked alongside some of the world’s largest brands to embrace disruption and spur innovation, understand and address the realities of the connected customer, and help navigate the process of digital transformation. She brings 20 years’ experience as a brand strategist to her work at Futurum, and has deep experience helping global companies with marketing challenges, GTM strategies, messaging develoment, and driving strategy and digital transformation for B2B brands across multiple verticals. Shelly’s coverage areas include Collaboration/CX/SaaS, platforms, ESG, and Cybersecurity, as well as topics and trends related to the Future of Work, the transformation of the workplace and how people and technology are driving that transformation. A transplanted New Yorker, she has learned to love life in the Midwest, and has firsthand experience that some of the most innovative minds and most successful companies in the world also happen to live in “flyover country.”
