How to build internal employee engagement with Artificial Intelligence

There are many components to a successful company. One of these components is employee engagement, or the emotional connection and enthusiasm that employees have towards their places of work. High employee engagement breeds company success because employees that have a strong emotional connection to their places of work are more dedicated. This, in turn, also makes them more productive and committed to turning in quality work.

Furthermore, emotionally invested employees will go the extra mile to build a positive work culture which helps further build employee engagement. Ultimately, when employees are emotionally invested in their places of work, they are also emotionally invested in the success of their workplaces, and therefore, will help bring about that success.

Because of how much of a factor employee engagement has towards company success, it behooves organizations to make use of any tool that helps build employee engagement. One type of tool that has been known to help build employee engagement when used properly is artificial intelligence (AI). In fact, in today’s technological world, many would argue that AI in employee engagement has become pivotal to company success and embracing machine learning represents a strategic approach for organizations.

Factors influencing employee engagement

There are many factors that influence employee engagement and employee satisfaction. Some of the key factors that influence employee engagement are described below:

Alignment with company values

People are often motivated by their values. Therefore, it only makes sense that employees are more emotionally connected to workplaces that have the same values as they do.

AI can help demonstrate to employees that there is an alignment between their values and the values of their workplaces. For example, the key indicators and metrics that an organization measures and reviews the employee performance of their AI by can demonstrate positive values to employees. Does the organization use AI in a way that is accurate, efficient, reliable, and fair? Are the metrics by which an organization is reviewing AI fair?

Companies can also use data-driven insights to reflect positive values such as connection, communication, empathy, and respect. Companies can do this by using AI to help employees better connect and communicate with one another. For example, companies can use Photoroom’s AI tools to get their employees to connect with one another through pictures. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

During a team building exercise about companies values, we used the Photoroom app and we landed on the transformative power of feedback in accelerating learning, particularly in conjunction with craftsmanship and iterative processes.

(Made with the Photoroom App during an employees values workshop around feedback)

Recognition

The most effective way to change a human’s behavior is through positive reinforcement. One of the best forms of positive reinforcement for an employee in the workplace is recognition.

Because recognition also happens to be a major factor of employee engagement, companies that use AI to recognize the positive efforts of their employees will get their employees to engage more. For example, using artificial intelligence to give employees positive feedback helps build employee engagement.

Professional growth

Employees are more emotionally connected to their workplaces if they know that they can professionally grow while working there. Professional growth includes both growth in skills and literal promotions. Therefore, AI in employee engagement in the form of professional growth occurs anytime companies use a personalized learning platform powered by artificial intelligence to help employees learn new skills that can later get them promoted. In occurring this way, AI in employee engagement also reinforces employee retention.

Positive work culture

It’s much easier for employees to build emotional connections to companies that have a culture of treating their employees well. That’s why a positive work culture is a factor of employee engagement.

There are many creative ways that companies can use AI to build a positive work culture. For example, using Photoroom to create employee pictures that are later decoratively used for internal company events is a form of AI in employee engagement.

Work-life balance

When employees have the time to have lives outside of work, they have the emotional bandwidth to emotionally connect with their employers. That’s why work-life balance is a factor of employee engagement. Companies using AI-driven project management platforms with machine learning algorithms to analyze workload distribution, prioritize assignments, and automate repetitive tasks, is an example of AI in employee engagement to improve work-life balance.

For example, Otter.ai is an AI transcription tool that some companies allow their employees to use to automatically transcribe their meetings and important conversations. By having an automatic transcribing tool such as Otter.ai, employees don’t have to waste time and energy taking notes and can instead focus on being more present and engaged in meetings.

5 Mechanisms of AI in employee engagement

We’ve already briefly discussed some ways that companies can use AI-powered tools to establish the factors of employee engagement. Other common mechanisms of AI in employee engagement are outlined below:

• Personalization

One mechanism of AI in employee engagement is personalization. This is because companies using AI to personalize things and to create a employee experiences that reflects the value of connection. For example, using Photoroom’s AI tools to help create personalized company swag or gifts with the individual photos of employees on them is a form of both AI tools for employee engagement and personalization.

• Feedback analysis

To ensure that employees feel heard and valued, companies sometimes use AI tools to get anonymous employee feedback on company operations. When employees feel heard and valued at work, they are more likely to build an emotional connection to their workplaces. Thus, using AI to give employees a voice at work through the mechanism of feedback analysis is a form of AI in employee engagement.

• Predictive analytics

With current advancements in technology, companies can now use AI to predict trends and patterns in employee behavior. This can give companies insights into how to better improve employee engagement.

• Learning and career development

Another mechanism of AI in employee engagement is the use of AI tools to provide training  and other learning and development opportunities for employees. By providing employees with learning and development opportunities, organizations are using AI to help provide their employees with opportunities for professional growth, which is one of the factors of employee engagement.

• Workflow automation

Automating tasks and processes is one of the top uses of AI in the workplace. By providing workflow automation, AI tools allow employees to more quickly finish administrative tasks. This not only gives employees more time to work on more important things, but it also provides employees with the work-life balance that they need to have the emotional bandwidth to connect with their employers.

Statistics on effects of AI in employee engagement

• Employees with great onboarding experiences are more likely to stay with employers long-term. According to Quantum Workplace, 69% of employees are more likely to stay with a company for three years if they experience a great onboarding program.

• Appreciated employees work harder. According to Quantum Workplace, 69% of employees say that they’d work harder if they were better appreciated.

• Engaged employees perform better. According to Gallup, engaged employees do more work and make more of an effort to show up to work. As a result, highly engaged business units realize an 81% difference in absenteeism and a 14% difference in productivity.

• Companies with higher employee engagement make more money. According to Gallup, the behaviors of highly engaged business units result in a 23% difference in profitability.

Benefits of AI in employee engagement

While many people have concerns about AI entering the workplace, there are many benefits to AI in employee engagement. Some of these benefits include the following:

Improved efficiency and productivity

Businesses most often use AI to automate tedious, administrative tasks. When businesses use AI to automate certain tasks, it gives employees more time to work on more important things. This in turn, increases employee productivity and efficiency.

When employees increase how efficient and productive they work, they get work done quicker. As a result, such employees improve their work-life balance which then improves their employee engagement.

Improved communication and collaboration

There are many ways that businesses use AI to improve employee communication and collaboration. For example, companies can use generative AI to help provide employees with a way to communicate with each other even when they aren’t physically near one another. Companies can also use AI to help employees more easily collaborate with one another online - especially in a world that has changed to a remote working culture.

Companies even sometimes use AI to help employees communicate their needs to their managers and employers as a whole. For example, through the AI mechanism of feedback analysis, employees can anonymously communicate their working concerns and frustrations with company executives.

By giving employees the opportunity to be heard, AI tools for feedback analysis and other communication-based practices are demonstrating the company values of empathy and communication. This not only helps employees align their values with those of their employers, but it also increases the chance that employees will become more engaged at work.

Less internal conflict

By opening the lines of communication up between employees, AI tools can cause less internal conflict amongst employees at a company. When companies use AI tools to gain insights on employee trends and behaviors, they can also decrease the amount of internal conflict that occurs between employees and their managers. This is because company executives can use the information that they learned about their employees to better cater to employee needs.

Increases employee loyalty

Employees that have an emotional connection to their places of work are much more likely to work there long-term than those who don’t have an emotional connection to their places of work. Thus, one benefit of AI in employee engagement is an increase in employee loyalty.

Employee promotion opportunities

There are many AI tools that businesses can use to help provide their employees with learning and professional development opportunities that can help get them promoted. By leveraging AI-driven platforms for personalized learning experiences, employees can acquire new skills and knowledge tailored to their career goals, leading to enhanced job satisfaction and greater potential for promotions within the organization. Therefore, another benefit of AI in employee engagement is an increase in employee promotions and job satisfaction.

Increase in employee pay

No one likes to work for free. Luckily, with the learning, development programs, and promotion opportunities that AI can provide employees, AI in employee engagement can also increase employee pay.

4 Tips for how to creatively use AI Tools in employee engagement

There are numerous creative ways through which individuals can use AI to enhance the positive impact on the future of employee engagement. This is especially true when it comes to using Photoroom tools. Some fun and creative ways that companies can use AI tools for employee engagement are outlined below:

Personalize onboarding welcome kits

According to Quantum Workplace, 69% of employees will work for a company for three years if they have a positive onboarding experience. Because of how impactful onboarding is to an employee’s ability to develop employee loyalty, using AI to help personalize onboarding welcome kits is great for employee engagement, also for remote empoyees. .

In addition, personalizing the onboarding experience shows new hires that they are valued from day one. Because personalization and alignment of values are both factors of employee engagement, using onboarding welcome kits to increase how much each individual employee feels valued can only help increase employee engagement.

Businesses can use Photoroom to help personalize onboarding welcome kits by providing images on cards and company swag. Companies can even use Photoroom to integrate employee photos with welcome messages on custom backgrounds.

Create engagement-driven social media campaigns

Social media campaigns that feature employee stories and achievements are great for employee engagement. This is because such stories make employees feel valued and recognized.

Companies can use Photoroom’s API to create visually appealing social posts with professional-looking photos. One example of such a post is this example from dsm-firmenich.

Celebrate employee milestones

Another way to make employees feel valued and recognized is by celebrating their employee milestones with custom commemorative photos or posters. Examples of such employee milestones include employee work anniversaries, birthdays, and promotions.

Recognition of employee milestones boosts morale, reinforces employees' sense of worth within a company, and encourages continued commitment. This directly influences retention by making employees feel appreciated and integral to the success of their employers. To further build employee engagement, use Photoroom to edit and place employee pictures in celebratory templates or with personalized messages.

Give all Employees uniform profile pictures

Sometimes, uniform pictures amongst all employees within a company can make employees feel bonded. Thus, another fun and creative way to use AI in employee engagement is to use the Photoroom round profile tool to create fun profile images for all employees.

Integrate Photoroom APIs for employee engagement

Here at Photoroom we offer a wide variety of AI and Application Programming Interface (API) tools that you can use to create and edit stunning, studio-quality photos from your desktop or mobile device. Some of the key Photoroom APIs that you can leverage for employee engagement include the following:

Photoroom Remove Background API

You can use our Background Remover to help build employee engagement by instantly removing the various different backgrounds of employee photos so that each employee photo can appear similar and be used as a company profile picture. You can even remove the background of employee photos and then use the pictures for company celebrations, welcome kits, or social media campaigns. We are making our Remove Background API accessible to all businesses by slashing our prices by 90% to $0.02 per image.

Photoroom Image Editing API

Take things a step further by using our Image Editing API to do everything from remove and replace backgrounds on photos to resize images, to add padding to images, to adjusting the positioning of your photos with just one click. With our Image Editing API not only can you elevate your photos to studio-quality level, but you can also use the tool to increase employee engagement.

For example, with our Image Editing API tool, you can resize an employee photo and place a whole new background behind it so that it matches the theme of a work anniversary party that you are throwing an employee. The sky's the limit when it comes to creative ways that you can use this tool to build employee engagement.

Fujifilm’s use of Photoroom API to build Internal employee engagement

Fujifilm is a global organization  that’s committed to providing better image and information to society. As a global organization, it’s important that Fujifilm continuously improves on employee engagement to remain competitive. To build upon internal employee engagement, Fujifilm Group recently used Photoroom’s API to create an app in support of the launch of their new corporate purpose, “Giving Our World More Smiles.”

With the use of Photoroom’s API, Fujifilm Group was able to give their colleagues the ability to create their own branded Selfie for a UGC campaign. This is just one example of the ways that companies are now using Photoroom APIs to build internal employee engagement.

Use Photoroom AI in employee engagement

Whether you want to increase employee engagement by demonstrating company values, recognizing employee efforts, improving company work-culture, or some other mechanism for employee engagement, you can use one of Photoroom’s powerful tools to help. This is especially true if you want to build employee engagement in creative and innovative ways.

So, what are you waiting for? Use Photoroom AI tools for employee engagement today and see our API pricing plans here.