Employee Engagement and Marketing:  4 Things All Employees Should Learn on the Job

Since up to 70% of US workers are disinterested or actively disengaged from their jobs, it stands to reason that most employers can increase employee engagement through strategic learning on the job.  I came up with four things that all of your employees should be learning on the job.

If you are throwing new employees out into the fray armed only with the skills and knowledge needed to fulfill the responsibilities they were hired to do, you are failing to address the one area which could make your business 4x as profitable and productive:  employee engagement.

It seems to me that the potential for developing high levels of employee engagement would be at its maximum at the time of hire and during the beginning parts of the employer-employee relationship.  Since a recent study by Corporate Executive Board revealed that employee performance can improve three times as much by learning on the job, rather than off, it would seem to make sense for employers to build training and education designed to encourage new employees to “bond” with the brand of the business, early on.

Encourage New Employees to Bond with the Brand of Your Business, Early On

This is one reason I prefer the term “on-boarding” to employee orientation.  When you orient someone to something, you make them familiar with it, while on-boarding involves a process.  To on-board someone may require that you:

• check their qualifications (do they have a ticket?)
• process them (complete the HR and benefits instruction and forms needed)
• equip them with what they need (skills and knowledge needed to succeed on board)
• give them information about what to expect and what resources are available to them
• let them know who to ask for help or more information

The idea of “on-boarding” carries far more than orientation.  Orientation is passive; on-boarding is active and implies that once a-board, an individual has a specific role to fulfill.

It’s time to re-think the way that you welcome new employees into your organization and make sure that they are learning these four things while on the job to improve employee engagement and get all the benefits that come with it:

• Your company story
• Your corporate mission, vision and values
• How their role adds to the story, how successfully completing their particular responsibilities helps to fulfill the company’s mission and vision, and how the values your corporation adheres to aligns with their personal values
• The path to success, reward and advancement within your organization

Employees should not have to guess whether – and how – they contribute to the fulfillment of your corporate mission and vision!

If you want high levels of employee engagement, employees should not feel as though the company story was completed long before they came aboard or that they will have to “wait their turn” to become insiders or make significant contributions when it comes to ideas, or improvements.

Employees should have a clear idea of how to be successful in their role as well as what opportunities for advancement, education and rewards will be available to them when they do succeed.

You don’t have to convince employees that your organization is already “awesome” in order to foster employee engagement — you have to convince them that they are exactly the people needed to make your organization better, and equip them to do so. 

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The 2013 Small Business Marketing Calendar: 12 Ways to Cheat at Marketing includes marketing strategies to boost employee engagement and customer loyalty.

Related articles: 5 Reasons Employees Hate their Jobs (and 10 Ways to Fix It) (DB Squared Business Finance)