Workplace Social Platforms Enhance Engagement

Cindy Mielke, VP of Marketing at Marketing Innovators, recently wrote about how technology has changed the way we handle almost everything, including how we communicate. From the increasing prevalence of cell phones to the introduction of social networks, human connections and interactions have increased and evolved. The speed at which we can communicate and the number of ways we can communicate have increased, and those changes have relevance in the workplace as well as in our personal lives, which is why workplace social platforms have captured the attention of human resource professionals. Rather than locking down the use of social media networks in the office, many companies are embracing their employees’ eagerness to participate and are finding ways to leverage this enthusiasm to drive employee engagement and advocacy for the company. Workplace social platforms offer the opportunity to build engagement by tapping into your employees’ familiarity with social sharing and social games. Building engagement in this way can also increase motivation by making recognition more public via social sharing and injecting fun into required activities via social games. A study conducted by Badgeville, a provider of gamification and behavior management platforms, and Make Their Day, a motivation firm, showed that 83% of respondents felt recognition was “more fulfilling than gifts or rewards,” and 90% said that a fun work environment was motivating. In addition to this, new technologies have allowed us to take workplace social platforms mobile. According to Pew Research, as of May 2013 cell phone ownership in adults had reached 91%. This number will continue to grow, so it’s important that your social recognition program include a mobile strategy. Mobile technology not only gives your users the ability to participate on their devices, it also makes program management easier because changes and updates can be made from almost anywhere and at any time. To learn more about the impact of workplace social platforms and other technologies on engagement, click here >