Well here we are, in the year 2020. It’s a new year, a new decade, and a new opportunity to make predictions for the year ahead. From tech to housing, pros from seemingly every corner web have shared their theories. Heck, I even got into the action by contributing to Poppulo’s recent 2020 trends post. 

Well, now it’s Brilliant Ink’s turn -- read on for our predictions of employee engagement trends for the year ahead!

1. BUILDING MORE DIVERSE & INCLUSIVE WORKFORCES

My prediction for employee engagement in 2020 is that more companies will focus on building diverse and inclusive workforces, not only because of compliance and social issues, but because it’s an imperative business strategy. 

Evidence shows that companies with more diverse representation at the top are far more innovative, productive and profitable.

So the big question is, why WOULDN'T companies prioritize diversity? Glassdoor agrees. In its “2020 Job Trends” report, Glassdoor predicts that recruitment of D&I specialists will become a major priority for employers as they seek to modernize their corporate culture and attract new employees. My two cents: it's about time! ‍

– Patty Rivas, Vice President
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2. BEAUTIFUL EMPLOYEE-FOCUSED DESIGN

I can’t wait to see what happens in the world of employee-focused design. It’s so exciting to see how much has changed in the last 10 years. 

Long gone are the days of plain text emails. Now we have curated newsletters, infographics, digital screens, art installations, experiential displays, videos, intranets -- and the list goes on and on. 

To keep employees inspired, I predict big, beautiful things in 2020.

– Sara Forner Howland, Vice President
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3. INTEGRATING DIGITAL WORKPLACES

Are intranets dead? I don’t think so, but I do believe that they are adapting to a new world order of internal communication technology. 

In 2020, I believe we’ll continue to see a push toward integrated – and simplified – digital workplaces. From intranets to internal message platforms to a successful SSO experience, employees expect the same level of ease with workplace tools as they receive with personal technology. 

While IT is traditionally seen as separate from comms, the effects on engagement from being overwhelmed with tools and information sources are profound. Lessening that burden will improve the employee experience significantly and benefit organizations with cost savings, improved productivity and easier communication overall.

– Jennifer Gunst, Senior Strategist 
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4. STREAMLINING IC CHANNELS

2020 will be the year of streamlining IC channels. There’s something to be said about really understanding what works (and doesn’t), and laser focusing efforts on meeting your people where they are (and where they want to be met). 

A big part of this is acknowledging a team’s bandwidth and resources — and figuring out a sustainable approach and balance between “what works really well?” and “what can WE do really well, over and over again?”

– Becky Sennett, Senior Strategist
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5. MASTERING MEASUREMENT

Will 2020 be the year employee engagement pros master the art of measuring our impact? I think so! 

Employee engagement has been proven over and over to drive business success, so this is our year to tie all of our initiatives to overall company gains — and stop sending mass emails or posting stories that don’t generate the results we want to see! 

I predict more sophisticated data collection — whether that’s pinpointing KPIs from the very beginning of a project or collecting feedback all throughout a campaign — and I hope to see a lot of humble bragging in 2020! 

– Kate Brinkerhoff Angus, Head of Accounts

6. MERGING IC, EE AND BUSINESS DATA

Building on Kate’s point, I believe that internal comms data, employee engagement data and business performance data will begin to merge even more closely in 2020.

As new technologies make data more attainable and accessible to teams throughout an organization, I predict that people will collaborate more closely on success metrics. In other words, how can our HR people data help us further slice-and-dice our newsletter open rates? 

– Jackie Berg, Head of Research & Business Development
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Need help tackling any of these? We’re here for you!

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