Advocacy's Essential Role in 2024 Workplace Trends

Gallup recently shared its six workplace trends for 2024, and they’re quite interesting. Take a look.

1. High stress levels among workers are persisting.
2. Employee engagement is slowly improving but needs more attention.
3. There is a growing need for trust in leadership.
4. Managers face challenges in adapting to new roles and responsibilities.
5. Developing a long-term strategy for hybrid work environments is crucial.
6. Effectively implemented hybrid cultures offer significant benefits.

While employee engagement and satisfaction isn’t our core business — nor is it the core focus of our customers — it’s something that affects every aspect of EVERY business.

These trends aren’t just HR’s problems. They’re something that everyone, regardless of role, is responsible for improving. Especially leaders.

And while what we do here at EveryoneSocial isn’t the solution for all of these problems, every single trend here is related to one thing: employees. And your employees are what’s core to our business.

“Ask any CEO or CMO about their business’ secret ingredient, and they’ll likely point to their employees,” reads a recent Ogilvy report. “They are the lifeblood of any company, the passion behind its core values, the intelligence that keeps it innovating, and ultimately the reassurance in its ability to deliver against its promises.”

I couldn’t agree more.

With that in mind, I’d like to briefly outline a few ways that an employee advocacy program can play a positive role in counteracting some of this year’s troubling workplace trends.

It increases employee engagement.

Employee engagement is all about improving the work environment and culture to encourage employees to be more dedicated to company goals and values.

And when employees are engaged, it pays off:

• Productivity increases by 20-25% when employees are engaged
• Highly engaged organizations see an average of 20% higher sales

Plus, high employee engagement boosts loyalty and retention, and who doesn’t want that?

While increased engagement isn’t typically the main selling point for our customers, it’s undeniably an incredible benefit.

Our platform encourages communication, keeps employees informed, enables them to share company content, and can even reward your people for participation via gamification.

So it’s no wonder that our customers consistently report increasing levels of engagement.

It grows trust in leadership.

Today, only 23% of U.S. employees strongly agree that they trust their company’s leadership. 

However, studies show that when leaders communicate clearly, 95% of employees say they trust their execs.

Executive participation on social media is a huge help in establishing such trust — both with employees and consumers. Just take a look at these stats:

• 86% of executives with a socially active CEO describe that CEO as “open and honest.”
• 80% of employees say they’d rather work for a CEO who engages on social media.
• 93% percent of consumers believe that CEO engagement on social communicates company values, shapes company reputation, and grows corporate leadership.
• 77% of consumers prefer to make purchases from a company where executives are active on social media.

Why wouldn’t you activate your CEO and the rest of your execs? 🤔

It improves communication and collaboration among remote and hybrid teams.

Hybrid work has become the norm for remote-capable workers, so companies need ways to keep every employee informed, engaged, and collaborative.

Enter EveryoneSocial.

Again, while internal communications isn’t the biggest reason why some of the world’s most successful companies work with us, it’s undeniably a perk. After all, 85% of employees say they’re most motivated when management offers regular updates on company news.

I could go on and on about how EveryoneSocial can alleviate some of the problems Gallup highlights in its recent report, but I’ll wrap it up here.

Bottom line: It’s easy to forget just how much change has occurred over the last few years, but we’re still feeling the effects of working through a pandemic.

And the truth is that the companies that better adjust to today’s challenges are going to win more talent, better retain that talent, and outperform their competitors in the market.

Thanks for reading.

And if you’re curious about how you can help your employees weather these trends in 2024, simply request a demo.