Engagement
7
min read
Andrew Carnegie once said,
“You must capture and keep the heart of the original and supremely able man before his brain can do its best.”
Although Carnegie wasn’t explicitly talking about employee engagement, this quote perfectly illustrates how vital it is to engage your employees so they will be happier and perform to the best of their abilities.
Employee engagement is influenced by many factors ranging from workplace culture, organizational communication, and managerial styles to trust, respect, and leadership. In combination and individually, HR professionals and managers play important roles in ensuring the success of employee engagement initiatives by cultivating work relationships through proper, clear, and open communication.
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8 Reasons Why Employment Engagement Is Important
Engaging employees is critical for retaining valuable talent and is an important piece of the employee satisfaction puzzle; as disengaged employees are more likely to leave their jobs. Here are eight such, equally important, reasons why employee engagement is important:
1. Increased Productivity
Reports show that employees who are invested in their roles are more productive than those who aren’t. Employees who are engaged are more involved and work harder while disengaged employees are likely to only do the bare minimum to get by. This holds true for organizations across multiple industries including healthcare organizations and factories. An employee who is engaged and attached to his/her organization will work to their full potential in order to achieve the collective goals and are more likely to become high performers.
2. Employee Retention
Engaged employees are involved and invested in their roles and are therefore less likely to leave their job. Businesses with the right work culture enjoy employee engagement and retention rates around 30-50% higher than those that don’t. Sometimes your best people aren’t engaged—and you may risk losing them. Keeping them engaged is absolutely essential to keep them at your organization doing their best work.
When the best people at your organization leave, the rest of your people will notice, leading to an unwanted domino effect.
Thus, engagement becomes even more important to ensure the best of the workforce stays with you and is not lost to your competitors.
3. Better Customer Experience
People who are passionate about their work are often the best people to interact with customers.
Why?
The customers will notice the zeal and passion of the employees and get even more attracted to your organization.
According to Quartz, the most engaged employees are “more inclined to put in the effort that translates into buzzing productivity levels, a happier sales force, and a more credible product pitch.” Customers will have a better experience when being dealt with dedicated and engaged employees of that organization.
Those who believe in the value of helping customers, and also feel valued by their organization, are far more likely to increase the satisfaction of customers.
4. Developing Company Culture
What is the culture of a company that practices employee engagement?
According to Forbes, it’s "a workplace that's designed, first and foremost, around its company values.”
Creating a harmonious company culture requires “checking in with their employees to ensure that the company mission aligns with the ways that people currently work and the ways that they want to work.” (ownload our free building the the right company culture)
People who are engaged in what they do are, in general, easier to work with. It’s because they exemplify a culture of employee engagement. Thus, engagement ensures there is a holistic and safe space for all employees to be their best selves and work towards collective success.
5. Leads to Innovation
All of the conversations that will spring up within your company because of increased employee engagement have the potential to make your employees more creative. Everyone in the workspace will be motivated and enthusiastic to move ahead.
Disengaged employees rarely produce new solutions or bring innovative ideas to the table; they have little interest in contributing to the bigger picture because they dissociate themselves with the collective objective of the organization. Engaged employees, on the other hand, find creativity to be essential. They thrive on knowing that they can find new ways of completing tasks and projects and are always looking for fresh takes on old ideas
6. Lower Absenteeism
Disengaged employees simply don’t show up for work and make excuses. They are often stressed or overwhelmed, unable to cope with the demands of the job to the point they resort to absenteeism. This is a surprisingly common problem in organizations and leads to low productivity rates, delays in deadlines, discouragement, bitterness, sadness, and poor relations between employees and management.
It is important to create reasons for your employees to arrive at work and this can only be done through improved engagement. In fact, a Gallup study shows that highly engaged workplaces saw 41% lower absenteeism. Thus, the need for engaged employees to fight the problem of absenteeism becomes even more relevant now.
7. Path to Success
Ann Latham says, “Engagement is a symptom of success.”
And this doesn’t necessarily mean a business success. Rather, engagement is usually the result of a personal or team success. Any organization that supports and encourages employee engagement is going to do better overall.
In other words, engaged employees are engaged not because they’re productive or easy to work with, but because they feel their work matters and it is being acknowledged by the heads of the team. They feel valued and when their successes are recognized, they will feel like they’ve succeeded in making a meaningful impact at work.
(Read Employee Recognition 101 to learn all about recognizing your employees at the right time)
8. Employer Branding
Employer branding is the process of managing and influencing your reputation as an employer among job seekers, employees, and key stakeholders. It encompasses everything you do to position your organization as an employer of choice.
95% of candidates identify a company’s reputation as a key consideration when exploring new career opportunities.
Virtually every candidate out there, whether they’re active, passive, or somewhere in the middle — will consider your company’s reputation before applying.
Thus, an engaged workforce shall add on to the brand of you as an employer amongst all these stakeholders.
Therefore, by creating an atmosphere of employee engagement, you can not only boost productivity and profits, but you can also help your employees reach their full potential and look forward to coming to work each day. Your workers will feel more satisfied and content with their careers, and your company will benefit from higher productivity and profits.
To take your employee experience to new heights with our customizable employee engagement module. Book a free demo today!
Suggested reading:
How to measure the effectiveness of your employee engagement practices? 11 key metrics
10 best employee engagement software to build a great work culture
