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As the new normal for 2022 is being assessed, some employee and customer engagement trends are emerging. 

According to Gallup, overall employee engagement in the U.S. is around 36%, only a little over a third. Of the disengaged workers, 74% are either conducting an active job search or looking out for openings.  

In 2021, Accenture found that 62% of buyers who make weekly B2B purchases had switched providers in the last 12 months and 36% planned to switch in the next 12 months. When asked what they want from their sellers, buyers’ preferences bridge the digital/analog divide to describe a service-oriented, channel-agnostic relationship that offers competitive pricing, flexibility, responsiveness, value, and ease. 

Companies need the right tools and strategies to mend the growing rift in customer and employee engagement.  

Employee Engagement: Crossing the Chasm 

Gartner’s Top 5 Priorities for HR Leaders in 2022 report showed that 44% of employees say they trust the organization’s leaders and managers to navigate a crisis well. However, 49% of human resources (HR) leaders say they do not have a future of work strategy. 

Only 10% of senior-level corporate positions are held by a woman from a racial or ethnic minority, a lack of diversity which undermines confidence and trust in leadership. According to 54% of HR leaders, their employees are fatigued from change. Employees today can only absorb half as much change without becoming fatigued as they could before the pandemic. 

Leadership's ability to influence day-to-day changes and create trust and team cohesion share a common factor: driving a positive employee change experience. To create a positive change experience, leaders need to: 

• Identify “moments of truth” that the organization must get right 
• Monitor the impact of day-to-day and higher-level change
• Empower teams to shape their own change experiences.

This empowerment includes deploying new methods of engaging, communicating, and collaborating with employees. 

Cloud, SaaS, PaaS: The Engagement Enabler 

Gartner forecasted that worldwide cloud spending will reach $482 billion in 2022, an increase of 21.7% from 2021. Cloud spending is being driven by the understanding that it is important to future strategy and growth. 

Frost and Sullivan found that 93% of IT decision makers believe that cloud is essential to staying competitive. Companies are embracing the production of containerized applications and more mission-critical applications are being run in the public cloud. 

Engagement Best Practices 

To improve engagement, companies should leverage consumption-based capabilities to remove friction and significantly increase the pace of innovation. Use an agile approach to deliver innovation and celebrate your teams and their achievements of innovation. 

Don’t let technical debt hold your business back. Review your current technology stack and determine if it is meeting the needs of your customers and employees. Reimagine how you can attract, engage, and support employees and customers using technology. Brainstorm internally on how to engage and support employees and customers in the future. 

Where to Get Help With Customer and Employee Engagement 

To increase customer and employee engagement, your company needs an IT partner that can design, implement, run, and maintain your network and system architecture. 

Xceptional is such a partner. Our portfolio includes: 

Xceptional Connect  

• Design, Deployment, and Management of Telepresence and Video Solutions 
• Voice, Video, and Web-based Conferencing 
• Real-Time Communications on all Devices 
• Cloud, UCaaS, On-site, and Hybrid Communications Solution 

 Xceptional Cloud 

• Strategic Enterprise-Class Data Center and Hosting Services  
• IT Software, Services, Applications, Email, and Network Solutions (Hosting, IaaS) 
• Storage Solutions 
• Backup & Recovery Solutions (BaaS) 
• Compliance as a Service Solutions (CaaS) 
• Virtualization 

Make exceptional customer and employee engagement part of the new normal for your business. Embrace the Xceptional experience and visit our website or contact us today by filling out the form below.