When done right, effective employee engagement will create
Happy employees excited to work for the company
Employees who value their roles and contribute to company success
Employees who respect and understand the company mission, goals, and objectives.
However, it’s important to note that it’s not just employees’ happiness or satisfaction that matters, but how it relates to the individual’s and company’s performance and productivity.
Why is Employee Engagement so Important
Employee engagement is so important to all organizations because having effective strategies in-place helps create a better work culture, reduce staff turnover, increase productivity, build better work and customer relationships, and impact company profits. Yet, it makes employees happier and turns them into your best advocates.
"Employees who believe that management is concerned about them as a whole person – not just an employee – are more productive, more satisfied, more fulfilled. Satisfied employees mean satisfied customers, which leads to profitability." – Anne M. Mulcahy, former CEO at Xerox
Employee Engagement Tips
Encourage Communication & Conversation
This is a good time to highlight an article from a few weeks ago, Good Conversations Matter
Make Sure They're Informed
If you have more than 50 people in your company, chances are that someone is almost always out of the loop on important news and events. Invest in keeping your people informed and they’ll feel more invested in your company.
Let Them Share Their Enthusiasm
Your employees have relationships with a tremendous number of people outside the walls of your company, including customers, prospects, partners, and future hires. Let them and/or encourage them to shout their enthusiasm for your company from the (social media) rooftops by providing them the permission and tools to do so.
Reward the Actions You Want
You probably have an idea of the kind of engagement you want to see from your people. Put some gamification and light rewards behind them. Even something as simple as a shout-out from an executive can be more than enough. Encourage this behavior by tapping into the power of gamification and incentivizing employees.
Measure Engagement Frequently
The annual and anonymous company engagement survey is common practice, but this isn’t very effective because it doesn’t provide an accurate picture of employee engagement throughout the year. Try some outside the box ideas such as short frequent surveys, individual employee meetings, and exit and stay interviews.
Employee Engagement Statistics
Here are some interesting stats on employee engagement courtesy of a recent Gallup report.
36% of employees are engaged in their workplace, while 51% are disengaged and 13% are actively disengaged
Employees who are actively engaged has risen 6% in the last 20 years to a high of 23%
The most engaged industry is healthcare (40%) while the lowest was found in manufacturing (33%)
In terms of geography, the highest engagement was seen in the United Kingdom (44%), followed by Canada (37%) and the United States (33%)
Millennials (born between 1981 and 1996) have the highest engagement rate (37%), followed by Gen X (born between 1965 and 1980) at 34%. Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) were the least engaged at 27%
Recap: Employee Engagement is so important to all organizations because having effective strategies in-place helps create a better work culture, reduce staff turnover, increase productivity, build better work and customer relationships.
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