Organizations investing in employee recognition can leverage social platforms to connect their rewards program to brands and products that are culturally relevant, reliable, and aligned to employee preferences.
By Maggie Mancini
A robust employee recognition program can be a gamechanger for talent attraction, retention, and company loyalty. When businesses connect employee contributions to tangible rewards from brands they already know and love, they showcase their commitment to the employee and their continuous growth. But how can organizations leverage social media to create and sustain brand desirability among their employees? That’s the billion-dollar question, says Paul Gordon, senior vice president of sales at Rymax. Everyone is experimenting with social platforms, trying to figure out the best way to achieve this common goal.
“Scarcity and exclusivity play a big role, because everybody knows that the product lifecycle is fairly short, and much shorter today than it ever was,” he says. “The reality is that people want to get on whatever is really hot, and they follow social media trends and influencers to find out what that is.”
But there are a lot of things that influence whether something is—or can remain—culturally relevant, Gordon explains. Brands must navigate shifting trends, steer through potential risk and backlash, and reinvent themselves to maintain relevance. Organizations using these brands for their employee recognition program should understand these cultural trends and leverage them to improve employee desirability and participation.
There are so many social platforms out there, and they attract very specific demographics. Gordon says they can be separated into a few different categories, including the following:
- visual platforms like Pinterest;
- cultural hubs like TikTok;
- creator-focused podcast platforms like YouTube;
- business networking environments like LinkedIn; and
- retail platforms like Shopify.
“When we look at social media, we look at what the brand is, who our targeted audience is, and where the best fit would be,” Gordon says. “You don’t want to be all over the place and dilute your message. What’s important is that you choose where the audience is, and you engage that audience.”
When it comes to messaging, Gordon believes these elements have the biggest impact:
- what’s new;
- what’s reliable; and
- what’s valuable.
“The reality is that things are more expensive than they were a year ago for a variety of reasons,” Gordon says, “whether it’s tariffs or just a scarcity of elements of what the product is. Employees want to see the value of what the brand is. They also want to see what the importance is. And I think those are the sort of the things that give it credibility.”
While measuring ROI is an important part of any brand’s social media strategy, it can be difficult to know exactly where to look, Gordon says. Conversion rates, leads, and brand awareness are important metrics to hit, as well as website visitors and content engagement.
It’s also important to reinforce the brand wherever possible, Gordon says. The frequency of the message is part of the message itself, so keeping it consistent and at the forefront is paramount in terms of securing ROI.
Organizations should ask themselves what they’re hoping to achieve through their social strategy, Gordon says. Is the company trying to attract more employees to the recognition program? Can they measure that in terms of who is clicking on the program’s website? Are they trying to create revenue? Have they seen an uptick in redemptions? These are all tangible ways to measure ROI, Gordon explains.
“Everybody’s online, everybody’s on their phone. It’s all ages and all demographics,” Gordon says. “You have to understand that it’s here and it’s not going to go away. People are simply immersed in their phones. Once they’re using the technology, you have to deliver an employee site that, again, is as exciting as any other retail site they might visit.”
This means designing your recognition program site to mirror a traditional retail platform, including spaces where employees can find items similar to what they’ve previously searched for, other items within their chosen price category, and regular updates from both their organization and the brands they’re seeing to keep things relevant and fresh, he says. All of Rymax’s employee recognition sites are customizable in this way, Gordon says, because it’s important for companies to highlight the most relevant messages for their employee base.
“The vehicle is there; all you have to do is get employees to look at it,” Gordon says. “If you give it some excitement and some relevance and keep it fresh, they’re going to keep visiting, and they’re going to be inspired to use it. That’s how you set your goals from a company standpoint. It’s money well spent.”
