How does Employee Engagement Help Boost Business Performance?

Today's employees want more than just a standard work routine. They want to involve themselves in their work and contribute as much as they can to the organisation. But, more importantly, they want to matter to the company and their coworkers. So, employee engagement today holds more prominence than ever because only through engagement can employees achieve satisfaction.

The Significance of Employee Engagement

A study of different companies with more than 500 employees concluded that 71% of managers felt employee engagement was one of the most critical factors for the organisation's success.

However, though employee engagement is viewed positively across many organisations and industries, many cannot engage their employees for various reasons. The most common reasons organisations across different sectors don't engage their employees may be that they don't recognise and reward them for their hard work. In addition, there are communication gaps between the employees and the management. Also, most employees don't understand the organisation's vision and mission.

So, these are some common reasons why there is little to no employee engagement across different companies despite it being a significant growth driver.

Benefits of Employee Engagement

Many companies, including the big ones, tend to focus on getting the work done and boosting business and revenue instead of engaging their employees. You should know that employee engagement has several benefits, including boosting productivity and growth. So many times, managers are busy preparing to launch products or services or increasing revenue generation that they forget about their employees and how they are doing their jobs.

Managers should never forget that employee engagement is vital for their organisation as it helps boost productivity and decreases employee turnover rates. Likewise, here are some benefits of engaging employees for the organisation in the long run.

1. Improved Productivity

Engaged employees are more consistent than those that are not engaged. It also translates to increased profitability for the organisation. Gallup reports that companies that engage their employees are more than 22% more productive than those who don't give importance to employee engagement.

Similarly, the Workplace Research Foundation conducted a study and found that engaged employees were 38% more productive than the average.

So, from the above data gathered by various studies, employee engagement is an essential aspect of the organisation that helps boost productivity.

2. Increased Profitability

According to Talent Culture, those organisations that engaged their employees saw profits rise by 10%. Engaged employees clearly understand their roles and responsibilities and the tools and training they need to perform at their best. Such employees should consistently be recognised and rewarded for their efforts. When managers reward employees for all their hard work, it allows them to grow both professionally and in their personal lives.

Moreover, it leads to employees putting more faith and confidence in the management and the organisation's future. It gives them a purpose and a well-established team who they can work alongside to boost sales and increase profitability.

With more engagement, employees would be willing to work as a team and individually, where they would also be proud of the work they are doing for the company.

3. Reduced Employee Turnover

Employee engagement also helps boost job satisfaction, and in turn, reduces turnover rates. In addition, since engaged employees would be more than happy with their jobs and the workplace, they are less likely to leave. Thus, when the organisation focuses on boosting employee engagement, it also creates a positive work environment, a significant driver for its growth.

Also, when employees feel that they have achieved job satisfaction, they are more likely to work harder and contribute to the organisation's success. When employees work hard to achieve the organisation's goals, it also boosts their performance and inculcates a sense of accomplishment, allowing them to advance in their careers.

So, when organisations engage their employees, they foster a sense of trust in them for the management. All this creates happy employees who would be willing to contribute to the organisation's success and help it grow in every aspect possible.

Areas of Employee Engagement and How they Help Boost Business

Until now, we have seen three key benefits of employee engagement. However, employee engagement also penetrates various other spheres of the organisation, including customer experience and talent acquisition.

1. Customer Experience

When an organisation focuses on employee engagement, it also focuses on its employees and how employees treat their customers. Since engaged employees feel more satisfied with their jobs, they are more likely to reciprocate the behaviour with their customers. Engaged employees would be willing to provide better service, helping the organisation to keep their customers happy.

So, by engaging employees, the organisation brings more happy customers for its products or services, better sales, and increased profitability.

2. Work Approach

Companies can better engage their employees by providing them with challenging tasks rather than having a monotonous workflow. When employees perform a charge over and again, they tend to lose interest in their jobs. So, the key here is to change how they approach their work by improvising workflows and the assigned tasks.

When the work becomes challenging, employees also tend to use their skills and knowledge to a far greater extent and design new and innovative approaches to tackle the problem at hand.

3. Talent Acquisition and Employee Retention

Organisations that engage their employees will have more loyal employees than those that do not participate in employee engagement. That is, companies that focus on employee engagement and satisfaction are less likely to lose employees.

Gallup also says that businesses with employees performing at their best have three things in common: They have been in that organisation for more than a decade without changing their jobs.

They are more engaged in their work than their peers, and their duties and responsibilities match their talents and skills.

So, by focusing on employee engagement, organisations can get employees whose skills match with their job roles and possibly retain them for as long as they can too.

Final Thoughts

Companies must look to engage their employees if they want to boost business. By engaging employees, organisations give them some much-needed satisfaction and allow their workforce to do their best to contribute to its success. However, such organisations should also ensure that they refrain from communication gaps, lack of information, micromanagement, and mistreating employees, as all these lead to dissatisfaction and higher employee turnover.

Also Read:

1) How to Identify Gaps in the Market for Your Small Business?
2) How to Start a Furniture Export Business?
3) 8 Simple Steps To Pay Employees Of Small Business
4) How to do a Perfect Audit in your Business?

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FAQs

Q. What are the Drivers of Employee Engagement?

Ans. In the past, a fat paycheck, job satisfaction, bosses, annual reviews, strengths and weaknesses, and the job were the significant drivers of employee engagement. However, today's employees look for more personal drivers, such as their purpose in the organisation, development, coaching, strengths, and a balance in their personal and professional lives.

Q. What Motivates Highly Engaged Employees to Do their Jobs Differently?

Ans. Engaged employees are more likely to be more involved and enthusiastic about their work and are crucial to its success. However, those employees who are not engaged may disconnect from their work and the company.

You also have employees who may be actively disengaged. Such employees are not happy with the work they do or with the workplace. They are likely to complain and be resentful about the management not meeting their needs. They also tend to be envious and undermine their engaged coworkers.

Q. How can Managers Improve Employee Engagement?

Ans. Managers have a prominent role to play when it comes to employee engagement. First, they must support their employees by letting them know how to do their jobs better. Managers can do this by explaining to their employees their contribution to the organisation's success.

To get their employees engaged, managers must become coaches, where they mentor employees with the help of engaging conversations.

However, managers today lack the necessary talent and skill set to engage their employees in meaningful conversations, and most employees tend to translate them into micromanagement. So, managers must learn to engage their employees on different levels rather than coaching or mentoring them.

Q. How does Employee Engagement Help Save Costs for the Company?

Ans. Employee engagement can help save costs for the company. When companies don’t engage their employees, their workforce reduces as many tend to quit their jobs. When employees leave, the company must hire new ones, and acquiring new employees is always high.