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Letting employees participate in a certain way in the changes proposed by the organisation (regardless of whether they are related to values, conducts and behaviours or with any aspect dealing with the way to work or to behave within the company), or even giving them the chance to co-create some aspects of the corporate management or communication, has a lot of benefits.
Here are the 10 reasons:
1. Motivation
A high percentage of employees are eager to collaborate with the change, to give it shape and to boost it, to be part of it; and they have a lot to say about it and about the way to promote it.When they get the chance (important: a real chance, no tricks, transparent) to co-create, you create a strong emotional connection with the company, a shared motivation.EGC is a proof of trust and empowerment, which leaves no employee indifferent.
2. Identification of the most engaged employees
Sometimes it is complicated to identify the employees with high engagement levels.When you allow your employees to create their own contents, it becomes much easier to identify and to monitor the engagement levels.It allows you to make out those who stopped being motivated at a specific moment in time, probably due to a “difficult” and rather impervious leadership.Overcoming invisible barriers and silos to find sleeping passions and reconnect them.
3. Making the people of the organisation visible
In large companies it is not always obvious who does what, or how do other colleagues look like.When employees get the chance to create their own content, they are able to present themselves and connect with their colleagues.This increases the possibility for employees to meet each other, and what is more important, it opens the door to future collaborations.
4. Discovering the stars of communication
Empowering your employees with the chance to create corporate content allows you to discover written or audiovisual communication talents and, what is even more important, to discover what they know.This is especially important to break the barrier of shyness during meetings or the limitations of the impact of their own workplace.It allows us to find the Cinderellas of Communication in our companies.
5. Strengthening corporate proposals and internal communication
The proposals for the management of a corporate change and internal communications may undergo a certain distancing process or lack of anchoring with some internal realities, with the daily work of the employees.Opening the door to collective participation allows for a review and a connection with specific realities, to anchor, to improve, and to have direct feedback from the employees… which improves the proposals made from the corporate side.One of the best ways to improve internal communication is promoting (digital) sharing and dialog.
6. Increase of the Commitment to Corporate Topics
Employees who co-create and participate actively in the management of the corporate change, the corporate communication, etc. end-up becoming the best ambassadors, feeling responsible for the viralization of the changes.The responsibility to make the change happen or to make the information reach the most hidden corners of the company is shared with these co-participants of the project, who will be the first to defend it.
7. Emergence of Knowledge
There is a huge amount of knowledge in the minds of employees.They do not only offer a different perspective, but they also know and understand perfectly well both the customers and their brand.Unfortunately, many employees hoard this information and do not share it, even if they have no real intention to do so.It is just because most of the employees do not know how to share and distribute their knowledge.Opening spaces to share contents allows organizations to make emerge a huge amount of hidden information.
8. Creation of Marketing Material
Employee Generated Content allows generating valuable content that may even be used internally or externally as communication elements for company clients.The employees of a company are often “product specialists” who can provide for a unique and interesting view of the product as such. In addition, watching an employee defending the brand with passion transmits confidence and an emotional connection with the clients.
9. Cost reduction
Without having to do without departments dedicated to the management of the corporate change and internal communications, the fact of allowing employees to generate corporate content, especially since technological media have become more powerful, easier to use and affordable, allows to reduce the generation costs of contents for the brand which can later be used internally or externally.
10. Because fear has no rational foundation
The idea of letting employees talk, internally or externally, can be considered as a risk by the corporate leaders.The results have always shown us that these fears and excessive caution are unfounded.When you allow employees to generate content – in a transparent way and with clear rules- the results are surprisingly positive:those who make use of the chance to create and to share, feel that they have the responsibility to act in a positive way, and starting from corporate messages, they create new approaches, anchor or connect these messages with the reality of the daily life at the company, disseminate…
Sources::
Mainly Cookie Box experience, but also:
5 Benefits of Employee Generated Content
Beyond social media – A rough guide to Employee Generated Content in the travel industry
We can THINK that we are still in charge and that nothing has changed.
We can SAY that we just need to adjust some pieces.
We can BELIEVE that we are doing it quite well, and that there is no need for a radical change in the way we deal with the people in our organizations.
Buy maybe our employees stopped connecting with what we ask for them at a corporate level, a long time ago. Maybe what we are proposing as something essential from a certain position (missions, visions, values, conducts, behaviours) is not having the impact we are looking for on the people of our organization. Maybe the changes are not happening as quickly as they should.
In order to make a good diagnosis, it is advisable to pay attention to the transformation of the relationships and the management of the information arriving from outside the company, i.e. from our homes and in the big Network, which allows us to see the value and the potential of collective development. At home, our employees are probably Prosumers: consumers and at the same time content creators.
What happens when these multi-skilled people cross the threshold of our company?
Do we turn them into mere consumers of our “product”? Do we allow them to mold the corporate reality, to change it, recreate it, improve it, enlarge it, expand it, connect it, make changes easier, participate in it…?
If the answer is no, we may not be generating the expected engagement, the emotional connection. And we may end-up heading toward a scenario of insignificance, ignorance, discredit, emotional absenteeism…
What can we do?
We don’t like global recipes, but every time we have opened the game for collective intelligence and co-creation, together with a courageous client, we found professionals who were:
- Thrilled and participated with passion,,
- Engaged in the search for solutions for the corporate challenges,
- Taking on responsibility, turning into ambassadors of the change.
As usual, this trend, which we consider to be unstoppable, has already been named in the U.S.: EMPLOYEE GENERATED CONTENT (EGC).
“Employee Generated Content (EGC) is the biggest HR strategy that most companies overlook. Your employees are smart, talented, and have plenty of things to say about your company. Giving them the tools and permission to share their knowledge or enthusiasm will pay you back many times over”. HR and Social Media: Employee Generated Content matters.
There you are. Smart, talented and with plenty of things to say. Do we see our employees in that way?
In the following articles about EGC I explain:
- 10 Reasons why Employees should be able to Generate Corporate Contents (EGC).
- Several cases of successful corporate transformation based on collective co-creation of contents, and, which is extremely relevant, from corporate reality (Simon Electrica, Hospital de Sant Pau, EADA…).
PS: Do you want to co-create this series of articles? Send us your ideas and comments and we will share them in the following posts.
We are sharing a series of six posts authored by Carlos Andreu, which reflect the almost initiatory journey we have travelled during the last few years at Cookie Box in order to provide new solutions to old problems.
At this point in the XXIst century, the score that used to assess the trainer cannot be indicative of anything. Because the trainer is dead. He has been surpassed by Storytelling and Gamification.
Video games were our next stop in the search for new Transmedia tools, along with Dramanagement. And in them we discovered that, in fact, it isn’t the video game! that could help us improve.
The new tools that have emerged under the umbrella of Edutainment were gradually taking shape with Dramanagement, film and business, as the first to show us the potential of the Transmedia trend.
Carlos Andreu explains how he discovers the path to edutainment, with the help of two dissidents: Sergi Corbeto and Norbert Monfort.
Carlos Andreu explains his first steps as a consultant in HR, which quickly detects how the participants’ grades in the training session define a success or a failure.
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