Employee engagement is one of the top factors that determine an organization’s long-term success.
The more personally invested employees are in their work, the more they strive to understand and contribute to your mission.
Unfortunately, disgruntled employees will always be a feature of the workplace.
According to multiple Gallup surveys over the years, the percentage of U.S. workers who are “actively disengaged”- those who have miserable work experiences and spread their unhappiness to their colleagues – stays pretty much the same, at about 13%.
But another 50-some percent say they are unengaged – not focused on the organization’s mission and doing just enough to get by and keep their jobs.
And when employees don’t have a personal investment in your mission and their daily work effort, it translates directly to your bottom line.
One study puts the worldwide cost to business of disengaged employees at half a trillion dollars each year from lost productivity, reduced product and service quality and the huge expense of replacing employees who quit.
Here’s a collection of articles from the last 12 months, along with info on one of our Premier Learning workshops, that will help you identify and address employee engagement issues before they explode into productivity-killing crises.
Engagement is key to retention
Employee turnover goes beyond the people who quit because they aren’t invested in your mission and the work they’re doing.
Even with the ongoing uncertainty created by the pandemic, many of your best people are still seeing offers interesting enough to make them jump ship.
That’s why, as your organization charts its post-pandemic course, engaging and retaining your best workers is more important than ever.
The good news is you can improve engagement and retention using the same tool – an effective and sustained employee recognition program.
Even better news? Employers who’ve invested in employee recognition programs – and the technology needed to support and measure those programs – report they can quantify links between recognition, engagement and employee retention.
Of course, when it’s time to convince leadership to keep investing in employee recognition, hard metrics are key.
In our story from late 2019, Retention drives employee recognition ROI, we share insights that you can use to help make your case.
Engagement starts with good management
Still, as important as formal recognition programs are to employee engagement, keeping your people engaged and productive day to day is the definition of good management.
Effective managers understand their people’s skill sets and, even more critically, how their work style and personality fits the job.
It isn’t simple and even the best managers stumble sometimes.
6 biggest keys to boosting manager effectiveness examines some common mistakes that managers make that can destroy morale and, ultimately, productivity. Then we share proven approaches to help avoid and address those mistakes.
And don’t forget about recognizing those great managers. Unfortunately, managers report even higher levels of stress and burnout than the people they manage.
Employee engagement in a remote work world
Many aspects of business will return to the pre-COVID status quo once vaccinations are widely available and we can be confident workers are safe.
But one change that looks permanent is that a much larger percentage of employees will work remotely at least part of the time. That means that engagement strategies have to evolve.
Of course, creating a positive employee experience isn’t an easy thing to do when your organization is working remotely.
To help you create a virtual work culture that ignites employee passion and channels it toward better results, SuccessFuel’s Premier Learning Solutions offers “Increase Employee Engagement: Keys to Making Remote Work Productive,” a 60-minute workshop that will be live on January 5, 2021 and available on-demand after that.
You’ll pick up invaluable tips on how to:
- Develop remote work conditions that make employees take pride in their work
- Enact a deliberate strategy to monitor and elevate your employees’ day-to-day experiences whether in the office or online
- Techniques to foster positive, productive team collaboration and interpersonal interactions
Communicate to build engagement
If you don’t know where you stand, it is very hard to improve.
Studies show that as 40% of companies say they can’t measure how effective their internal communications efforts are in reaching and influencing employees.
As you refine your benefits communications strategy for an increasingly remote workforce, it’s critical to measure some key performance indicators.
As we explore in our article “Measuring the value of benefits communications,” applying marketing and social media metrics to your communications campaigns can help refine your messaging and boost engagement.
Employee engagement as workers return
As they plan for employees to return to work, organizations must look beyond sanitizing, masks and social distancing.
While some employees are eager to get back to working onsite full time, others are determined to continue working from home or at least having a more flexible work schedule that balances the two.
Preparation has to account for the wide range of employee opinions and expectations about returning to physical work locations. If employees don’t feel like they are part of the process, engagement will suffer.
In “Return-to-work plans should include employees’ input” we provide specific steps you can take to make sure employees know you are listening to their concerns.
Listening will help make employees into partners in finding return-to-work solutions, instead of suspicious and scared adversaries.
