My outstanding design and marketing firm shared this article about employee-generated content.
It is a pretty clear litmus test of how engaged and retained your employees are, isn’t it? They don’t have to create material they can use to promote your business. Researchers call it “discretionary effort.”
We see it often with customers: They have to give you money for your product or service … but they choose to fill out a positive survey.
Or brag about you on social media.
Or bake you cookies next time they visit.
(All three of those happen regularly in car dealerships!)
But do we see it with employees? They have to do the work you’ve hired them for … but do they choose to fill out a positive employee engagement survey?
Brag about you on social media?
Voluntarily advocate for you in recruitment drives?
(Some might bake you cookies, but you’d probably prefer the employee-generated content you can use for career pages, screens or walls in the workplace, your social media, recruitment event materials, and job listings.)
As a colleague of mine says, you can buy their hands, you might even buy their brains … but you can’t buy their hearts.
If you pass the litmus test, my guess is you have less trouble keeping good people. You have less of a revolving door. You have more prospective employees ready to enlist.
The article’s biggest tip to address this is to “build a people-first culture.” That’s the real trick, isn’t it? Their stories–and yours–are absolutely key here. If you need to work on your culture, give me a call.