Organisations can use social media in many ways. Though, employees using social media is a delicate balancing act. These staff engagement initiatives can help.

Employees Using Social Media and the Effect on Staff Engagement

Social media is everywhere nowadays. More and more companies are using social media for marketing, recruitment and retention. Currently, 80% of employers google potential employees.

Likewise, according to the latest Randstad Engagement Study, 11% of workers spend an hour or more on Facebook for personal use every day. For an eight-hour work day, that’s more than 12% of the entire day.

This has seen organisations adopting social media policies. These are an expansion of communications policies and companies now use them to protect themselves following publicised mishaps.

It’s also important to set guidelines in order to encourage staff to focus on productive activities. Moreover, extensive use of social media suggests low employee engagement.

Staff engagement in USA is 29% but Britain is much lower (14%), according to Halogen Software. Therefore, companies need to keep competitive and this can be achieved through employee engagement trends.

Read: The Top Employee Engagement Initiatives for 2014.

Employee Engagement Initiatives Using Social Media

Organisations can decrease the detrimental effects of employees using social media. They can incorporate them into their employee engagement initiatives.

More and more employee engagement strategies now involve online surveys. They can also utilise social media so when staff are tempted by distractions it can still benefit the company.

NHS and Social Media

The NHS are currently using social media to build employee engagement. One way they do this is by monitoring what is said about their organisation. They argue that this can help improve staff engagement and the reputation of an organisation.

They also encourage small, frequent reminders of how teams and individuals are making a difference to help build staff engagement. This is a low cost recognition that can reward employees and even make them more competitive.

The NHS, however, recommends that social media is not the only means of engaging employees.

Read: Are Staff Engagement Surveys Still Relevant?

Cisco and Encouraging Employee Social Media Engagement

Cisco suggests that employees using social media can be a cheap and effective way to promote your organisation. Staff can easily publicise events and success’ of an organisation.

This can be encouraged through rewards or competitions at key events and even beyond. Cisco says, “Adding an element of gamification and rewarding beneficial behaviors can go a long way.”

Furthermore, inform employees about how to create shareable content. Then track the success of these posts through hashtags, for example.

This can make social media fun and productive. Whilst, building employee relations and the reputation of any organisation.

Read: Gen-Y Employees and Staff Engagement Strategy.

IRI Consultants and the Blogosphere

IRI Consultants suggests using blogs to reach employees. If an organisation has a particularly tech-savvy workforce this can be a great tool for staff engagement.

Messages and instructions can be sent quickly via blog posts and won’t be easily lost or deleted. Employees can also comment, share and interact with the content and each other.

New employees can then join your organisation and get a quick overview on best practices. Whilst a public blog can inform and engage the public and potential employees.

Social media is a great way to engage staff at every stage of the employment process. It is a juggling act but it can also reap rewards at a relatively low cost.

Contact great{with}talent and find out more about their TalentEngage employee engagement surveys.

(Main image Employee Survey Toolkit)