Marie Hattar is CMO at Keysight Technologies, responsible for brand and global marketing efforts.
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The Covid-19 pandemic, uncertain economic conditions, hybrid work environments and many other factors are compelling marketers to find new, creative ways to engage customers. But to achieve their business goals, marketing leaders should also focus on employee engagement. This article will highlight why employee engagement can be a key business driver and what marketing leaders today can do to support their teams.
Why Employee Engagement Is Important
The benefits of employee engagement have been touted for decades. Gallup research shows that companies with the most highly engaged employees experience 43% lower turnover, 18% higher productivity and even 23% higher profitability than those with the least-engaged employees. For marketers, happier and more motivated employees can better reflect your company’s brand values in customer interactions. Here are a few strategies CMOs can use to drive engagement and loyalty among employees.
How To Engage Marketing Teams Today
1. Create A Positive Onboarding Experience
Onboarding is your organization’s chance to make a great first impression on new employees—and marketing leaders should go beyond the basic HR and IT overviews. At Keysight, we created an onboarding track to set up new marketing employees for success. Marketing onboarding programs can include a review of brand guidelines, team objectives and priorities, and recent top-performing campaigns—as well as one-on-one meetings with key team members. Throughout the onboarding process, managers can help employees develop a 30-60-90-day plan and brainstorm ways for them to achieve quick wins. By giving new employees the information and resources they need to hit the ground running, managers can help them become valuable team members in the long term.
2. Promote Knowledge Sharing
As marketing quickly evolves in the digital era, I believe organizations that create a culture of continuous learning and collaboration are more likely to succeed. Promoting knowledge-sharing is a way to exchange relevant information while helping team members feel valued.
CMOs can create an online space to facilitate knowledge-sharing across the organization, such as an internal intranet or messaging platform. Or perhaps they can develop a quarterly employee insights newsletter. Keysight fosters information-sharing through global “lunch and learns” that teach new skills and insights—including how to be a better content editor, how we launched a specific campaign, and how a new product introduction (NPI) impacted our customers and company. This allows managers and individual contributors to share their expertise and creates a growth mindset within the marketing organization that spurs new ideas.
3. Find Ways To Connect Remote Teams
Today’s hybrid work environment can make it challenging to foster connections and team bonding. Marketing leaders should carve out time and budgets to host virtual and, when possible, in-person team events. As team members get to know each other on a personal level, they’ll likely be more invested in collaborating to achieve their shared marketing goals.
Last year around the holidays, Keysight hosted a virtual wine tasting to allow our marketing leaders to connect more informally. And as the world began to open up this year, we’ve started to host face-to-face meetings for regional teams. These sessions focus on organizational alignment and strategic planning but also include fun team-building activities such as a painting class, luau or miniature golf.
4. Recognize Outstanding Performances
Make a habit of celebrating wins and recognizing employees who go above and beyond. Whether it’s managers sharing campaign results in an internal email or an employee posting a new piece of content on LinkedIn and tagging their teammates, a simple shout-out can go a long way. In fact, celebrations on LinkedIn and other external channels have the added benefit of driving brand awareness and trust among employees’ networks.
5. Regularly Gather Employee Feedback
Make a practice of gathering feedback from employees at all levels. For example, quarterly surveys can reveal what employees value and help leaders identify where to prioritize their engagement efforts. For our company, this has been especially critical in recent years as we seek ways to support our employee community throughout Covid-19 and during natural disasters like wildfires.
And while a survey is a good first step, 360-degree reviews take it to the next level. These performance reviews—which include feedback from an employee’s manager, direct reports and peers—provide candid responses and help hold all employees accountable. As a result, managers can better understand an employee’s strengths, working style and professional growth opportunities. These insights can also spark ideas for learning and development programs and inform how marketing leaders maintain a positive work culture.
6. Help Your Team Avoid Burnout
It’s no secret that during the pandemic, we saw an increase in burnout. If you’re in a busy season, promote no-meeting Fridays to minimize Zoom fatigue and give employees the time they need to get work done during business hours—so they can close their laptops at the end of the day.
At the same time, make a point to check in with your team and give them opportunities to raise concerns in a private setting. During the Covid-19 lockdown, I met with small groups virtually to understand how employees were feeling, whether their workload was manageable and if they needed help prioritizing.
The Correlation Between Happy Employees And Happy Customers
Today’s evolving landscape requires CMOs to think creatively about connecting with their teams. Set up formal and informal initiatives for gathering feedback, sharing knowledge, celebrating wins and avoiding burnout. This top-down approach can signal to marketing leaders and their teams that employee happiness is a business priority—which could result in a more positive workplace culture and resilient, motivated team members.
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