For decades employee engagement is the main concern for organizations across the verticals. Employee engagement directly affects all walks of the business: the quality of product/service, productivity, profitability, customer satisfaction and most importantly employee retention.
Deloitte, Gallup, Gartner and other management research outfits time and again bring out statistics and metrics on engaged and disengaged employees to prove how important employee engagement is to the organizations. Companies reengineer their policies and practices to develop, nurture and enhance employee engagement.
How important is employee engagement to your organization? The answer lies in understanding the reasons for disengagement and the benefits of engagement.
Reasons for disengagement
Employee disengagement not only affects the individual, but the negativity seeps into the team and infects the entire organization over a period of time. Be always wary of the signs of disengagement. Here are a few reasons for employee disengagement.
Boredom at work
Boredom is a healthy human trait if it is in check. But perpetual boredom is a cause for concern. If left unchecked, it will lead to apathy and hinder Management growth.
The primary causes of boredom are the lack of challenging work, unending repetitive tasks and uninspiring routine. There are many ways to inspire bored employees. Give them a much-needed break from the mundane routine. You can offer them a new project or a challenging task with more responsibilities. Try automating the boring repetitive tasks or distribute those among employees so that one person doesn’t get all the brunt.
Lack of recognition
From toddlers to elderly everyone desires appreciation and recognition. Dale Carnegie in his iconic book How to win friends and influence people reveals that the big secret of dealing with people is to give honest and sincere appreciation.
Appreciate your employees generously and whole-heartedly to win over their loyalty. Employees who feel recognized will work with zealous involvement and commitment, which are the signs of high employee engagement. Recognition by management, recognition from managers and peers are the driving forces behind employee engagement. Feedback and recognition tools and apps such as Synergita facilitate and streamline employee engagement.
Despotic work culture
The authoritarian work culture suppresses creativity and involvement. No one likes too much interference in their work. It creates a negative environment in the workplace and is the major reason for disengagement.
Try not to be bossy and involve the team in decision making. Give free hand to employees regarding their assignments and how best to do it. It gives them a sense of responsibility and foster engagement.
Lack of development opportunity
Employees, especially millennials have clear career ambition and aspire professional growth. Provide them plenty of development opportunity to enhance their professional skills and career growth. Growth opportunity incentivizes employee engagement and motivates them to achieve better results.
Understand your employees’ need, before initiating employee engagement programs. Address their needs with genuine empathy and concern. If done correctly, there is no way you can fail.
Benefits of employee engagement
The benefits of employee engagement are manifold. It reflects in their eagerness to come to office on-time; in their readiness to help peers; in their initiative to undertake new ventures; in their passion and zeal while talking about their organization, etc.. Here are some of the instant and sustainable benefits the organizations can reap with a powerful employee engagement programs.
Less absenteeism
It may sound trivial. But $84 billion is not. Annual productivity loss due to absenteeism is estimated to be $84 billion by a Gallup survey. Engaged employees don’t jump into avail leave of absence.
High performance
Engaged employees outperform 18% more than their non-engaged counterparts. Also, they are instrumental in motivating their peers too. They create, spread and promote high-performance culture in your organization.
Increased productivity
Highly engaged employees are 21% more productive than their peers. They are happy and satisfied with their jobs. They are willing to take the extra mile to improve their overall performance.
Increased retention rate
Employee engagement significantly reduces the attrition rate. Engaged employees are 59% less likely to leave the organization. They also tend to stay with the employer longer than the average employees. By retaining top talents you can avoid $120,000 productivity loss per employee.
Improved customer satisfaction
Happy and engaged employees drive positive customer experience through their positive attitude. They are proactive in maintaining a healthy, friendly relationship with the customers and offering their assistance.
Increased profitability
Employee engagement impacts all the key business outcomes including profitability. Business units with high employee engagement level achieve 22% more profitability.
Gallup research finds a strong correlation between employee engagement and business performance across diverse industries.
In the age of LinkedIn and Glassdoor, your employees are the vociferous brand ambassadors of your organization. Keep them happy, inspired and engaged to stay competitive, to attract top talents and scale new heights.