For me, at the heart of motivation lies the necessity to make someone think.
Historically, conversations with other people have provided that stimulus. While the depth and subtlety of a good chat can’t easily be beaten, in our digital age there are now other options to encourage people to think about things.
Nothing can motivate better than someone (who cares about you) looking you in the eye and saying a few words that you desperately need to hear, but for all sorts of reasons that doesn’t happen anywhere near enough.
Cue digital solutions that are stepping in to fill the void.
To inspire someone, you need to give them food for thought on a regular basis. You need to take them out of their everyday mental processes and transport them into a world of possibility. Managers motivate people by knowing which buttons to press in order to make them think like this, but if the right questions are asked, then a digital app can have a similar impact.
However, unlike a conversation, engagement with an app offers uniquely measurable insights that can be used to take the temperature of your business.
When you can track the engagement of each individual on an app, you get a unique window into their mind sets. If a high amount of people spend longer than average consuming a certain piece of content, you know that the topic matters to them. If, on the other hand they ignore something else, you understand that it doesn’t rank high on their priorities. It is easy to see who is engaged and which messages resonate with which employees.
I bet that we all wish that we had a way of measuring our conversations like this.
The “on demand” nature of an employee engagement and communication app also means that people can get help at a time that suits them rather than when their boss is free. If they know that there is a training video on how to use the latest system, they will visit the app rather than take up the time of their boss or colleagues. They feel good that they are being proactive, and their conversations with one another gain an added depth of meaning.
For me, however, the most powerful aspect of an app is that it can be moulded by a whole range of different people. While one manager might have a fixed “style” and approach for dealing with certain situations, an app can be flexible to change with the demands of the business and its output comes from the wisdom of the crowd rather than the individual.
Years ago, individuals would have found it difficult to engage with content on a screen, but these days that is exactly where employee engagement is being cultivated.
The Employee App
In addition to being a great platform to observe and track engagement, recognise and reward outstanding individual or team performance an employee app can also help a business:
- Communicate with all of their workforce no matter where they are
- Share business stories, visions, missions and values
- Digitalise the company newsletter, publish in real time as news happens
- Replace the old Intranet that many employees don't have access to
- Retain employees longer as they feel part of the bigger picture
Would you like to improve management and leaderships engagement skills?
We have partnered with an organisation who offer simple action-based programs that transform disengaged employees into fully engaged leaders.
Our partner has developed 9 bespoke programs varying in length from 5 hours to 12 months long to tackle culture and engagement challenges. Weather you want to increase the engagement within a particular functional area of the business or get your senior management and leaderships singing from the same hymn sheet there's a course for you.
For more information regarding our partners programs please get in touch today for more information.