Everyone is looking for different employee engagement ideas. One great way to engage employees is to use photos to liven up your workplace.
We live in a world of images. It’s never been so easy to snap a photo and share it with the world. Photos are immediately emotional and social, and allude to stories that don’t have to be written. They take but a moment to understand—a treasured quality for today’s multitaskers.
We’ve come a long way since personal cameras in any professional setting represented a PR nightmare. Photography has proven itself to be a powerful tool for companies not only for its use in commercial advertising, but more recently for the ease with which third-party individuals are able to market – as well as interact with – brands through social media.
Digital photography and the Internet have made the corporate cultures of most companies pretty transparent – both to its own employees and to the world. So let’s go over the steps your company can take to leverage photography to engage current employees and the public.
1. Create a Hashtag for Your Employees to Use
So the line between personal and professional life has officially blurred. Use it to your advantage.
Show the world you trust your employees to share photos relating to the company on their social media networks. Not only that, show your employees you trust them. They might in turn reward you with positive and honest endorsements of your company that will strengthen your employer brand.
Remember: it’s more believable when an employee promotes a company’s culture than when a company does so themselves.
2. Make a Company Instagram
Put faces to your company’s name. With their permission, post images of employees working together, whether it’s when they’re volunteering after work hours or celebrating an exciting milestone at the company.
Also, are you planning on recruiting any millennials for your team?
Keep in mind that 34% of US teens and millennials (ages 14-34) are on Instagram. Sixty-six percent of millennials use Facebook. And, 44% of people report they they are more likely to engage with a brand if they post photos on social media.
If you haven’t started leveraging social media to market your employer brand, it’s time to start!
3. Document What Goes On Backstage
Create a Dropbox or Flickr Account for internal use. Then let your employees have fun with it.
This is where all the photos of office shenanigans go that didn’t quite make it onto social media. Photos from a happy hour. Pictures of a colleague whose family visited the office and befriended other employees. Even baby pictures of teammates.
Plus, we’ve already discussed the importance of keeping remote employees feeling in the loop. Sharing photos internally allows remote workers not only to feel connected to their on-site colleagues, but allows them to share aspects of their work life with the on-site team as well.
4. Create a Photo Board in the Office
Before dismissing this as grossly mundane and old-fashioned (who prints photos anymore, right?), think of why we still display photos of our families and best friends in our homes and on office desks.
Isn’t it because we’re proud of them and want to feel close to them?
So be a proud parent and show off your team.
There is no doubt that employees will feel more connected and committed to a team when they see themselves standing among their teammates in photos displayed in the office. Be sure to include every employee on the team in at least one displayed photo so no one feels left out. Try to update it as often as possible.
5. Document the Growth of Your Team Regularly with Photos
Taking team photos every couple months can be a powerful way to visualize the growth of a company and see how everyone’s hard work is paying off – especially for smaller to mid-sized companies during their growth spurts.
Team photos can also be repurposed for content marketing or future PR opportunities. Not to mention, it’s a wonderful way to make new employees feel like they’re officially part of the team.
