How can you use research to engage employees?

1 Why research matters for internal communication

Research can help you understand your employees' needs, preferences, challenges, and expectations, as well as measure the impact and effectiveness of your internal communication efforts. By conducting regular surveys, interviews, focus groups, or polls, you can gather insights that can inform your communication goals, content, channels, and tone. Research can also help you identify gaps, issues, or opportunities for improvement in your internal communication and address them accordingly.

2 How to design your research questions

The first step to conduct effective research is to define your research questions. These should be tailored to your internal communication objectives, relevant to your audience, and clear and concise. For instance, if the aim is to increase employee engagement, potential research questions could include: how satisfied are employees with their work environment and culture? How well do they understand and align with the organizational vision and values? How often and effectively do they communicate with their managers and peers? What are the main sources and channels of information for employees? And how do they prefer to receive and share feedback? Answering these questions can help you identify areas of improvement and develop strategies that will increase employee engagement.

3 How to choose your research methods

The next step is to decide how to collect your data. Depending on research questions, budget, time, and resources, there are various methods that you can use. Surveys are structured questionnaires distributed online or offline to a large sample of employees. This can help quantify and compare different aspects of internal communication, such as satisfaction, awareness, or behavior. Interviews are one-on-one conversations that allow you to explore and understand the opinions, experiences, and emotions of employees in depth. Focus groups are moderated discussions with a small group of employees that can generate and test ideas, as well as observe the interactions and dynamics among them. Each of these methods have different types of questions or formats depending on the level of detail and complexity you want to capture.

4 How to analyze and interpret your data

The final step is to process and make sense of your data, which involves organizing, summarizing, and presenting it in a way that answers your research questions and provides actionable insights for your internal communication. To analyze and interpret the data, depending on its type and amount, you can use descriptive statistics to summarize and compare it in a simple and clear way. You can also use inferential statistics to examine the relationships and differences among the data and test the validity and significance of the results. Thematic analysis is a qualitative method that allows you to identify, code, and categorize the main themes and patterns of the data, such as words, phrases, or concepts. This can help you understand the meanings and implications of the data and reveal underlying issues and opportunities for your internal communication.

5 How to use your research findings to engage your employees

Research is not only a way to collect information, but also a way to communicate with your employees. By sharing and involving your employees in your research findings, you can demonstrate that their opinions and feedback are valued, their needs and expectations are taken into consideration, and that you are dedicated to improving their internal communication and employee experience. To engage your employees, you should communicate the purpose and process of your research before you start. After completing the research, share the results and recommendations in an engaging format such as reports, infographics, videos, or webinars. Highlight the key findings, main challenges, and best practices that you discovered. Furthermore, create an action plan based on the research findings and recommendations. Invite your employees to contribute to the plan by asking for their suggestions, feedback or input. Also assign roles and responsibilities to them and motivate them to collaborate in implementing the action plan.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?