Most CEOs have the same company goals. They want top-notch customer service, high sales and profits at the end of each month. Indeed, all these are great, achievable targets – but they’ll remain only phantoms if your company lacks employee engagement.
Bad news, but even a mega-company can’t achieve its monthly goals/objectives without an engaging workforce.
The Corporate Leadership Council reports that organizations with an engaging workforce enjoy three times faster profit growth compared to their competitors. The report also highlights that highly engaged companies possess the potential to improve staff performance by 20% and decrease employee turnover by a staggering 87%.
Studies by Towers Watson reveal that a mere 18% staff members receive feedback once a week compared to the 43% highly engaged employees. The source further points out that out of the 75 drivers of engagement, the highest rated, and the most important one, was the belief of employees that senior management takes genuine interest in their lives and well-being.
Employee engagement is also a sign of your company’s positive vibe: every employee of the company, from the friendly typist working in the corner to the cordial receptionist at the front desk, has the responsibility to execute that vibe.
Well then, it’s pretty clear that employee engagement is important if you want your company to succeed in the long run. So instead of wondering about the current level of engagement in your firm, why not take action? Here are few tips to get started:
1. Make employees a part of the bigger picture
Your brand might be nothing without the baristas…. Give your employees a reason to believe that they’re a part of the bigger picture, so that they connect with their positions and tasks and run them like they're personal matters.
Connecting the goal of your company to the work of each employee will drive motivation that money can’t buy. Also, storytelling can work well for company’s development as it makes the experience of working for the organization more personal for employees. And when that happens, they will make efforts for its success out of altruism.
2. Carry out employee engagement and customer satisfaction surveys
One of the surveys from Infosurv states that many companies make investments in customer loyalty and satisfaction measurement efforts. However, measurement of these components won’t be viable alone, because you need to have the right people in the right positions with the right resources to be in a winning situation.
More specifically, it might be more beneficial to run customer satisfaction surveys and employee engagement surveys side by side to create a direct link between company results and engagement, resulting in tangible information that can have a significant impact on overall engagement level and your company’s bottom line.
3. Provide feedback and celebrate performance
Giving regular and constructive feedback to your employees will help them understand their weaknesses and opportunities for improvement. It will also help them to realize their strengths and focus on their productive qualities to add value to the company.
Moreover, you should recognize and reward performance on an individual and group basis so that the employees develop stronger beliefs and feel motivated. This can be in the form of monetary payments, notes of recognition on the corkboard or other non-monetary rewards.
Where do you stand with employee engagement?