Engage your employees and improve productivity.
What is Employee Engagement?
Employee Engagement is a workplace approach resulting in the right conditions for all members of an organization to give their best each day, be committed to their organization’s goals and values, and be motivated to contribute to organizational success, with an enhanced sense of their own well-being.
Why is it important?
High employee engagement leads to higher productivity; staff stays with the company longer, represents the company better, and provides better customer care.
A Towers Perrin-ISR study found an interesting relationship between high employee engagement and low.
|
|
High Employee Engagement | Low Employee Engagement |
| Operating Margin |
3.74 |
-2.01 |
| Net Profit Margin |
2.06 |
1.38 |
How do you get there?
Numerous employee engagement surveys, including one recently conducted at OTELCO, indicate that communication and collaboration are extremely important.
A Case Study Still Unfolding
The recent corporate reorganization and branding unification of OTELCO is a great example of why and how to bring employees at multiple locations in multiple states together as one cohesive unit. Otelco Inc. is the parent company of approximately 15 communication companies operating in 7 states. In Alabama and Missouri, the various companies operated under either Otelco or i-Land. In the other states the company operated as OTT Communications. Today all operate as OTELCO.
OTELCO services across all footprints are quite diverse and include business communications and cloud technology, residential phone, Internet, IP TV, Cable, and home security, and in the case of i-Land, fixed wireless. The corporate reorganization was an effort to unify the company and to tap into the broad spectrum of expertise company-wide in order to better serve subscribers in all footprints. With that initiative, a brand unification and facelift made sense. With the assistance of an all employee engagement survey, the new OTELCO brand was developed.
Although there has always been communication and collaboration between staff in the various company footprints, this organizational initiative dictates a higher level of interaction and collaboration for operational logistics and employee engagement across all locations.
OTELCO’s Answer:
Microsoft 365
In the coming months, OTELCO will deploy Microsoft 365 company-wide. The cloud-based application platform offers desktop and web-based versions of the entire Microsoft Suite of programs as well as Skype for Business web conferencing, OneDrive for document storage and SharePoint for team collaboration. This technology coupled with OTELCO’s Hosted PBX phone system will allow staff to interact and collaborate from locations across the country as if they’re in the same room.
- From an operational standpoint, the real-time collaboration and communication will increase efficiencies and reduce travel between offices saving time and conserving resources.
- Improved communication and collaboration address employee engagement survey responses as well as provide a conduit for staff at all locations to become better acquainted with each other.
The OTELCO story is just beginning, we’ll be sure to let you know how it goes.
What about your company?
Employing communication and collaboration technology, whether a state of the art hosted phone system or software like Microsoft 365, allows for telecommuting, flexible work days, and other ‘perks’ that appeal to today’s workforce, promote employee engagement, and help your bottom line. If you want to learn more about how technology can boost your bottom line, download OTELCO’s free Business Technology Guide. It is free, and has information about everything from employee engagement to email marketing.
