One of the biggest challenges in any business is finding, hiring, and retaining great employees. Part of the issue is that employees frequently find themselves in companies or positions that, quite simply, they’re not happy with and one of the issues is employee engagement

According to a 2018 study, approximately 70 percent of employees are looking for a new job at any given time. The reasons why range from feeling underpaid to under-recognized. In fact, nearly 80 percent of skilled employees said they weren’t given proper recognition for their efforts. And the cost of employee turnover is staggering, coming in at a whopping $1 trillion (yes, with a “T”) for U.S. businesses. Yikes!

If anything, these figures should indicate a clear disconnect between what employees and employers expect of each other. It’s out of this disconnect—and the need to retain high-quality employees—that employee engagement programs were born.

Employee engagement programs are designed to increase employee satisfaction (not happiness. Like anything else in business, it’s best to approach these strategically. And what’s the best way to be strategic?

It all starts with data about employees. What do employees like and dislike about their jobs? How do employees want to be recognized and rewarded? What do employees think about the vision of the company and its leadership? Do employees feel like they have growth opportunities within the company? If not, how can the firm improve?

Now, the most common way for companies to obtain this type of information is employee surveys and focus groups. However, these can take a long time to develop, deploy, and analyze. By the time a firm gathers enough data and analyzes them to the point of being able to take action, it’s possible the data is already outdated. Things move fast in today’s world, after all.

To keep a finger on the pulse of what employees are thinking and feeling at any given moment, companies can look at real-time networking data. Of course, we’re not talking about computer networks—we’re referring to networking among employees. Data about how often employees connect with each other and how many connections they have within the organization at any given moment can reveal insights into how well workers tap into internal resources to accomplish tasks. Posing a question of the day or question of the week, and collecting and analyzing responses can promote healthy discussion while also providing regular feedback.

And all of this data can be used over time to develop a stronger employee engagement strategy. It can help you gather and measure relevant feedback. It can help you understand groups of employees on a more granular level, segmented by role, function, seniority, and other demographics. Most importantly, it can help you develop ways to make work more meaningful. Part of that is helping to foster meaningful connections between employees, but part of that is also gaining an understanding of what motivates employees—and then delivering that.

Luckily, all of this is available through Zenvoy. Not only can Zenvoy help connect employees to each other, but our backend analytics can provide real-time insights into worker sentiment. If you’d like to learn more or see how this could work for your organization, contact us to schedule a demo.