Harnessing technology to enhance employee engagement

Employee engagement can be defined as the extent to which employees are committed to their organization, feel passionate about the jobs and the effort that they put into their work. Not only are disengaged and dispassionate employees likely to leave their job, but their disengagement will make them less efficient, thereby affecting their performance and productivity, which will ultimately affect overall business performance.

Technology plays a crucial role in enhancing employee engagement. Here we have identified 3 benefits of embracing technology in the workplace:

• Eliminating time-consuming HR processes: Technology ensures continuous interaction between colleagues as well as between managers and their subordinates. Automating fundamental HR processes like employee surveys, performance reviews, reports, online payroll transmissions, etc. means that documents can be submitted retrieved and reviewed quickly and efficiently, thereby meaning that HR can focus on management-related tasks such as promoting and enforcing skill development measures.
• Promoting teamwork: Having a technology-based platform will encourage the rapid sharing of information and encourage creative thinking amongst collaborators. The use of technology such as an intranet or web-based applications will enable the creation of workgroups, whereby employees in different locations and in different departments can contribute effectively and work together to achieve the desired result.
• Increasing awareness of the company’s brand through social media engagement. Employees can promote their company by sharing updates and activities related to the company on social media channels, thereby reaching potential new clients and building the company’s social media presence.

Technology will continue to expand in the future. The challenge is to stay ahead of the curve by harnessing new emerging technologies for the benefit of the business, which will result in increased employee engagement as well as the encourage creativity, improve innovation and strengthen company performance.