Why employee engagement is important

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Hit enter to search or ESC to close. Close Search. Page Contents Click To Jump. About SnackNation SnackNation is a healthy office snack delivery service that makes healthy snacking fun, life more productive, and workplaces awesome. Connor Garrett November 10, Ashley Bell November 10, Jeff Murphy November 10, Vibin Varghese says:.

October 1, at am. Ginni Agarwal says:. October 14, at pm. Richard Fendler says:. October 15, at am. Leave a Reply Cancel Reply. Handcrafted in Los Angeles. At beverage giant Molson Coors, highly engaged employees were five times less likely than nonengaged employees to have a safety incident and seven times less likely to have a lost-time safety incident. What Employee Engagement Is—and Is Not Researchers and consulting firms have developed varied definitions of employee engagement.

Employee engagement definitions Definitions of employee engagement range from the brief and concise to the descriptive and detailed. Examples of employee engagement definitions include: Quantum Workplace - Employee engagement is the strength of the mental and emotional connection employees feel toward their places of work.

For example, engaged and less than fully engaged employees have been described as follows: Gallup distinguishes between employees who are "actively engaged" loyal and productive , "not engaged" average performers and "actively disengaged" ROAD warriors, or "retired on active duty".

Sibson Consulting differentiates "engaged" employees those who know what to do and want to do it from "disengaged" employees those who don't know what to do and don't want to do it , "enthusiasts" those who want to do the work but don't know how to do it and "renegades" those who know what to do but do not want to do it.

Metrics Many organizations conduct workforce surveys to measure levels of employee engagement within the organization and to analyze the relationships between employee engagement and key business outcomes.

An effective plan will detail these five components: How the strategy will be communicated. How action areas will be identified. What measurable outcomes will be used to evaluate progress. What specific actions will be taken to address the survey results. How the engagement strategy will be sustained over time.

Unique aspects of employee engagement surveys Employee engagement surveys have a different focus than other types of employee surveys. Creating engagement surveys When developing employee engagement surveys, organizations should consider the following guidelines: Include questions that could be asked every year or more frequently. This will provide a base line for management of employee engagement.

Keep language neutral or positive. For example, ask, "Is our line-to-staff ratio correct for a company our size? Focus on behaviors. Good questions probe supervisors' and employees' everyday behaviors and relate those behaviors to customer service whenever possible.

Beware of loaded and uninformative questions. For example, questions such as "Do you look forward to going to work on Mondays? Keep the survey length reasonable. Overly long surveys reduce participation rates and may result in skewed responses because participants check answers just to finish the survey as quickly as possible. If you work with a vendor that comes to you with a "standard" list of questions, consider tailoring questions to reflect your organizational needs. Consider what you're saying about the organization's values in issuing the questionnaire.

Question selection is critical because it tells employees what the organization cares enough to ask about. Ask for a few written comments. Some organizations include open-ended questions, where employees can write comments at the end of surveys, to identify themes they might not have covered in the survey and might want to address in the future.

Consider doing more than one type of survey, each with different questions, frequencies and audiences. For example, "pulse" surveys are brief, more-frequent surveys that address specific issues or are given to specific segments of the workforce, and they can take place between annual surveys. Or conduct different surveys for company leaders and employees, or in different business units or specific countries.

See: Employee Engagement Platforms: More than Feedback Tools A New World of Tools for Measuring Employee Engagement Measuring the ROI of Employee Engagement Using engagement surveys After an employee engagement survey has been administered, survey data should be reviewed in aggregate and broken down for each business unit to allow individual managers to make changes that will truly affect engagement levels. To avoid those mistakes, organizations should: Have management communicate to employees that the survey is an organizational, not a public relations, initiative.

Consider creating a survey committee to instill broad buy-in. Create feedback or focus groups to determine the level of significance of specific items mentioned in the survey.

Involve the entire management team in the action-planning process to ensure that changes are made based on employee feedback. Group open-ended survey comments by theme and categorize them at the workgroup level to ensure confidentiality of survey feedback. Global Issues The factors that drive employees to be engaged in their work vary not only from country to country but also by industry sector and within companies.

In looking to engage employees globally, employers should: View global HR decisions in the context of national culture. Use valid research—not stereotypes—to align HR practices for a local population with actual employee attitudes and perceptions.

A major motivator and driver of employee engagement is understanding how individual roles contribute to business strategy and objectives. Engaged employees believe in your company, value your product and are passionate about the work they do. This translates into unparalleled customer service in which employees go above and beyond for the people they serve.

Customers pick up on engaged employees' excitement and passion, which influences their buying decisions. One study found that customers of companies with engaged employees use their products and services more frequently and were more satisfied than customers of companies with disengaged workforces. Stephen R. It makes sense that companies with employees who work harder, serve customers better and stick around for longer are more profitable than organizations with disengaged workforces.

Consider the above three benefits: reducing turnover cuts down on the cost of hiring new employees; improved productivity means more business-driving products, ideas and strategies are developed; increased customer satisfaction leads to more sales. All of this drives profitability. A highly engaged workforce infuses passion and energy into every corner of your business, generating higher profits in return. One of the most effective and efficient ways to measure employee engagement is through an employee engagement survey.

Frequent short surveys, or pulse surveys, are superb for regularly collecting real-time employee data. Pulse surveys should be used to answer pointed questions and address specific problems. Quarterly or annual surveys, on the other hand, are typically more robust and are used to collect big-picture data.

These offer a good point of reflection for employees and employers as they look back on the past year or few months. The data collected from these broader surveys can be used to track long-term goals and progress. Your employees are more likely to care about customers and go above and beyond to ensure customers and clients have a great experience. The overall goals for most businesses is driving profits and increasing them.

But if your retaining employees, increasing productivity, boosting customer service, it makes complete sense that your sales and profits increase too. Employees need to feel satisfied in their work, otherwise interest and enthusiasm will slip away. When employee engagement is high, employees feel satisfied with their contributions and impact. They have a connection to their performance and the company they work for.

This also leads to overall happiness, which is good for company morale, productivity, etc. When your company is looking to roll out new initiatives to boost the business, employees who are engaged are more likely to participate.

Meaning your adoption rates and long lasting interest will be great. When employees are informed and highly engaged, they are also more likely to be your brand advocates. This means word of mouth marketing, sharing on social media, and helping your marketing reach and employer brand. Employees are the most trusted voice of your company and the services or products.

This is referred to as employee advocacy , which will naturally start to occur. Learn more here. Many managers and business leaders would likely tell you that their employees are fully engaged with their company and work.

That is a major problem and many companies are not aware that they even have an internal issue that is that bad. But there is hope! Start caring about employee engagement, create an employee-first atmosphere, and provide opportunities and tools for employees to do their best work.

None of this is exactly easy at first, but here some employee engagement tips to get you on track. One of the critical factors in fostering a workplace with high levels of employee engagement is communication , both formal and informal.

The important thing is that you have the tools and services in place that allow people to connect with each other with as little friction as possible, no matter their role or location. Yet, this also means getting valuable and honest feedback so your company can make improvements.

It should be communicated how important this is and provide ways for employees to be open and honest. If you have more than 50 people in your company, chances are that your people are almost always out of the loop on important news and events. How about that new product that just launched?

Are you aware of the new competitor that just popped up? How about that new account you just landed? As stated in a past Nielsen report, people trust the recommendations of their friends and family more than any other type of marketing.

Your employees have relationships with a tremendous number of people outside the walls of your company, including with your customers, prospects, partners, and future hires. Let them shout their enthusiasm for your company from the social media rooftops.

Related : Interested in getting employees engaged and involved with social media?