How to Use Marketing to Address the Rise of Workplace Loneliness
The concern of workplace loneliness took center stage during the pandemic, and though some of the unsteadiness of that time has settled, the conversation around employee loneliness has gotten larger and more nuanced. Studies have shown that loneliness can be deadly AND expensive, and many think that employers need to strive to improve connections, especially with remote workers. With more employees interested in and pushing for connectivity at work, it can feel like an overwhelming task for employers.
However, just as marketing strategies are employed to connect with customers, they can also be used to address workplace loneliness. Here are a couple of ways to use your marketing efforts to offer more connection for your employees:
Brand Your Culture
If creating connections among your employees is important to your organization, share that! Weave your cultural policies and strategies into your existing marketing efforts online or through employee communications. Create belonging and purpose by leveraging your relevant mission, vision, and values to bring teams together. Sharing highlights, accomplishments, and future goals can bring people closer together, even if remote.
Building Owned Audiences
We’ve talked before about the importance of building an owned audience and the benefits of creating an online community, and one of the best things about having a carefully curated space for your brand is that it improves connection and belonging. An owned audience or online community doesn’t just have to be for customers. Your own employees getting active in such spaces can vastly improve their relationship with work, and it also might be a good idea to create a version of your online community that is solely for employees to increase cross-departmental communication and bonding.
Organizing or Improving Upon Events
If your brand hosts or creates events—either virtual or in-person-–it can be fairly simple to replicate an experience or expand upon one to include employees. Marketing efforts are integral to a successful event, so tailoring your internal communications and strategies such as newsletters, social media posts, and email messaging to involve employees can make them feel more involved while at the same time making them brand ambassadors, excited to share about upcoming experiences or initiatives.
Leveraging Marketing Data Internally
Chances are that your brand uses data and analytics to track who your customers are, how they are communicated with, and what kind of engagement they are providing. You can use these same strategies internally as well. Employ sentiment analysis techniques to gauge employee unhappiness or disconnection; use segmentation to identify helpful demographics to understand how better to provide meaningful connections to individual employees; use marketing automation tools to deliver personalized messages and resources to team members. Be creative! How can you take your marketing data and use it to inform offerings for your own internal team?
Overall, combating workplace loneliness requires a proactive and holistic approach that doesn’t just have to live in the realm of HR. Using marketing strategies to create connection, belonging, and engagement among employees is not only possible but incredibly effective.
Want to go deeper into this conversation? Join NEWaukee and Newance on May 21st for a lively debate on the state of workplace loneliness and who is responsible for curing it.
Looking for more assistance using marketing to connect your team? NEWaukee can help you with outside-the-box brand thinking, outstanding marketing, and exciting community engagements. Contact us here.
