26 March, 2021
How to Ensure High Adoption of an Employee Engagement Platform
Every enterprise employee uses a range of applications during a single day of work. These can include email, chat, social media, payroll, appraisal, company intranet etc. Getting them to consistently use yet another tool focused on rewards and recognition can be an uphill task. However, to gain the maximum ROI from your total rewards program, high adoption of the platform is crucial. To achieve this, both the RnR software vendor and the organization need to ensure user-centricity in the platform design and proactively iterate platform components as usage matures. This blog covers the multi-faceted process of making your employees adopt an employee engagement platform for the long term.
The onboarding experience of any technology platform is important to retain users for the long-haul. This includes an attractive UI, application tours, easy navigation, even rewards for first-time users/first time downloads.
- Customizable Workflows and Reporting
Any employee engagement platform needs to be tailored to the organization’s culture and bring the firm’s values to life virtually. This means digitalizing offline rewards, administrative and approval processes and also creating role-based dashboards and reports. The more saving of time and efforts that the platform offers to an employee, the more likely they are to keep returning.
Gamification has proven to be a game-changer when it comes to platform adoption as it triggers the goal-gradient effect in users, making them take the next logical step towards winning a digital badge, or upgrading to an elite level club of employees after winning certain rewards. Having leaderboards in employee recognition tools also boosts public esteem, which triggers the human drive to defend self-worth.
Integrating the engagement platform with the right kind of inhouse applications can result in seamless reward workflows, resulting in successful adoption. Integrating with data systems like the HRMS, Payroll and Appraisal portals are crucial for relevant, real-time data synchronization. Other frequently used apps like email and chat are also powerful ways to bring employee recognition and rewards front-and-center with employees by preventing logging into various platforms to give a simple real-time recognition to a peer.
Timely triggers to employees in the form of communications outside the platform are necessary to give just the right amount of push to employees to use the platform. This involves sending emailers before the platform launch and regular updates in terms of additional features and usage. Organizations can also trigger occasion-based communications via email or SMS wishing employees on birthdays or anniversaries, encouraging them to redeem their gifts on the platform.
Support throughout the user lifecycle is an important determinant of any platform’s usage. This can take the form of a responsive helpline, helpdesk or ticketing system as well as training materials for all kinds of employees. The lesser the amount of hiccups in a user’s workflow, the higher the chances are of the platform being used.
The reward redemption experience on an employee engagement platform needs to be memorable and impactful. Having run-off-the-mill, stale products can drastically affect redemption rates. Making employees feel special involves giving them relevant reward choices on their terms- they decide when they redeem reward points and how, whether through clubbing them with cash, opting for e-vouchers or ordering their physical gifts to a location of their choice.
Finally, platform adoption is known to receive a great boost when it is promoted by senior leadership. The relevant teams need to ensure that the senior management is well-aware of the ins-and-outs of the platform and are promoting it by using it themselves.
Promoting the usage of an employee engagement solution is an integrated effort that requires planning and patience. Flexible, easy-to-use, customizable and buildable solutions are known for high adoption rates and can be evolve as per organizational needs and business scenarios. All in all, it is important for any solution to become an integral part of an employee’s daily functioning, instead of being a simple nice-to-have tool.