Between my years in automotive manufacturing and my current exposure to a wide variety of industries, the one thing I repeatedly hear is how leaders are struggling with employee engagement.
If your managers feel the same way, what is being done about it?
Is Time and Resources holding them back? Step back and look at the bigger picture….
Look at your daily calendar, how many of the items on your daily schedule are you able to accomplish? An average of 30-50% of what you planned, is actually what you may get done. Largest reason being, getting called into unplanned urgent calls and meetings to address customer issues, untrained employees, or quality of the product/service you provide.
Hence no time for your initiative to improve employee engagement.
So how about reversing the cycle? Focus on employee engagement and retention, that will bring productivity, retention and customer satisfaction, and yes, you can then meet or exceed your targets of the year.
Here are 5 benefits of improved employee engagement that result in positive bottom line:
1. Improve Productivity
Engaged employees are more motivated to do their work, making them far more productive than their disengaged counterparts. They find sources of passion for their job, giving them the fire to stay focused and produce high-quality work. Organizations with a high level of employee engagement report 22% higher productivity than those that do not, proving that improving employee engagement on your team is more than simply improving employee satisfaction.
2. Improve Retention
Engaged employees are more likely to stay with your organization. Improvements in employee engagement are shown to decrease turnover by 24 to 59%. Is your top talent starting to slip away? One Gallup workplace engagement study found that 51% of employees are either actively searching for new jobs or are watching for openings. Yet, when segmented by employee engagement, only 37% of engaged employees are looking for jobs. When you factor in the lost skills, decreased productivity, talent-search, and onboarding costs that are incurred when an employee leaves, this 14% difference is huge!
3. Improve Customer Satisfaction
Organizations with a highly engaged workforce get much higher customer satisfaction ratings and enjoy higher customer retention and referrals. Engaged employees are committed to delivering quality and excellence because they feel as though they are truly a part of the organization. They are connected to the vision and the mission and have therefore become effective brand ambassadors for the organization.
4. Improve Attracting Talent
When you have an engaged, productive, and talented workforce, you are better able to attract more high-quality talent. Your team will be more likely to refer contacts and help spread the word that your company is looking to fill a position. When you have candidates in for interviews, your engaged employees help to bring the right person on board by asking engaging, thoughtful questions and providing authentic testimonials about what it is like to work with you. Top talent wants to work with other talented, passionate and engaged talent. When they experience that energy in your organization during the interview process, they are much more likely to accept a job offer.
5. Improve Your Bottom Line
All of these reasons, brought together, contribute to the fifth, and perhaps most important, reason to create a plan to improve employee engagement on your team now—your bottom line. If you are the type of manager whose performance is measured by business performance and growth (is there anyone out there who isn’t?), then you have a tangible, financial reason to improve employee engagement. Would your company’s bottom line benefit from a 20% increase in productivity, a 20% decrease in turnover, a 10% increase in customer satisfaction, and improved talent acquisition?
Managers are the main drivers of employee engagement in your organization.
