Communities are powerful. Whether they’re in school, in a city or town, or they’re employee communities, they can make a big impact.
Not only do they provide social opportunities, but they can also benefit our physical and mental health, helping us fight off everything from depression to chronic pain.
There’s no reason a work-related community can’t have just as big of an impact as social circles in our personal lives. In fact, work is often a place where people form long-term friendships.
Employee communities can help you nurture these relationships and can benefit your business, too.
What are employee communities?
Employee communities empower employees to connect with colleagues, regardless of company size.
For distributed or large companies, this can make a huge difference, resulting in a 39% increase in job satisfaction. No wonder 90% of Fortune 500s now have employee communities.
In the last five years, there’s been a 29% increase in employee engagement through employee communities. What’s more, they can enable a 14% increase in retention rates.
So if engagement and retention are areas you want to improve in your business, it might be time to look into how you can get more from employee communities.
How to get more out of employee communities
Let’s explore how you can maximize the results you get from employee communities.
Welcome new members
Have you ever walked into a room full of strangers only to have every pair of eyes turn to look at you…but nobody comes over to say hi?
Or worse, no one acknowledges that you’re even there?
For employee communities to be a success, every member should be made to feel like they’re welcome, regardless of how long they’ve been there.
If things start to get cliquey, it’s immediately off-putting and could harm your retention and engagement rather than boosting it.
Welcomes don’t have to be anything major, just a simple hello is enough. Something to acknowledge their presence and encourage other members of the group to welcome them, too.
Using the right tools to organize your employee communities can even highlight who’s new to a group. That way, fellow members know who could use a welcome. A little hello can go a long way.
Get leaders involved
Leaders set the tone for an organization. If they see employee communities as something they can set and forget, they’re unlikely to ever take off with employees.
If leaders are actively involved, regularly promote them, and make your employee communities seem important, employees will be more likely to want to use them, too.
But first, leaders have to explain the benefits. Otherwise, people will wonder what the point of it all is.
This could come in the form of a company-wide email, a LinkedIn post, an internal social media post, a poster in the office, or all of the above.
The more you do to get the word out—and regularly remind people employee communities exist—the better.
Have a shared purpose
One of the strongest ways to build connection is by sharing a purpose. It puts us all on even footing regardless of other criteria.
Having a strong purpose can also benefit our mental health as it gives us something to keep us focused.
Whether that shared purpose is improved diversity in the workplace, mentoring those earlier on in their careers, contributing to the environment, or something else, a shared purpose connects employees like nothing else. It gives them a reason to check in, stay on track, and take part in activities.
This common purpose then helps everyone organize activities and agree on goals.
It makes it clear to new hires who the group is for and therefore automatically qualifies people before they join.
Depending on employee communities’ success and engagement levels, they could also work to improve your employer brand.
It shows the outside world what matters to your employees and that the business contributes to something beyond just profit. Which further helps you attract more people with the same mission.
Collect feedback
Collecting feedback is important for every part of a business. It’s the only way to learn and grow. Employee communities are no exception.
Group leaders and HR should regularly check in with employees. It’s important to see what they want or need from the group, and what could be improved on.
Or even what employee communities they want to see, how people are managing them, and if you need a better tool to organize them.
You could collect the answers anonymously, which helps make employees feel more comfortable being honest. This is especially true if they’re from a background that’s underrepresented within the workforce.
Anonymity can also change how others respond to the feedback, making it a useful tool for driving change in the workplace.
Conclusion
Employee communities enable colleagues who have similar interests or purposes to connect around a shared cause or topic. This helps reduce loneliness, which negatively impacts productivity, performance, mental health, and physical health. It could be the difference between a workplace of engaged employees who want to work or disengaged employees who are quiet quitting.
When organized in the right way, communities give your employees a greater sense of connection to their workplace and their colleagues. They help them stay focused while also feeling like they’re contributing to a larger purpose.
Use Workrowd to manage your employee communities
Workrowd can help you manage your employee communities so they’re easier to organize and employees want to join them.
You can put all the documents you need in one place, send automated feedback surveys, and create a greater sense of belonging in your business. Not to mention, you’ll gain access to analytics dashboards that ensure you always know how your communities are advancing your business.
If you’d like to connect your employees with easy to manage employee communities, get in touch today to discuss how we can support you and book your free demo.
