Over the past decade, employee engagement has become ingrained as an approach to help organizations create a positive work experience for their people that, in turn, can positively influence business outcomes such as turnover, customer satisfaction, and financial growth.
Employee engagement measures the extent to which employees are motivated to contribute to business success and are willing to apply discretionary effort to accomplish tasks important to the achievement of business goals. It represents an emotional commitment that people have in their work that motivates them to put in extra effort to help the organization achieve its goals and objectives. Measuring employees’ perceptions and attitudes about the work environment is important because research links engagement with quality of work performance and business outcomes.
Numerous studies have demonstrated that an engaged workforce can have a significant effect on financial and operational results. Businesses with highly engaged employees see higher customer satisfaction, have lower turnover rates, and outperform businesses with lower levels of employee engagement.
Still, results also affirm a promising outlook for companies that actively manage their people’s engagement. High performing organizations and those that conduct regular engagement surveys (and take action on them) reveal significantly higher performance on a number of measures than do other organizations. These findings suggest that when done right, employees feel excitement about their companies’ future, their part in creating that success, and a genuine connection to their leaders, managers, and the work itself.
Gallup’s research shows that employees are almost twice as likely to want to stay with the company when engaged. They also create a higher level of customer satisfaction, which leads to higher profitability. Clearly, instilling and ensuring engagement in your workforce is critical. But how do you accomplish this task?
A recent finding from the U.S. Department of Labor shows that the number-one reason people leave their jobs has nothing to do with pay or promotions, they leave because they “don’t feel appreciated.”
When employees feel appreciated they will be emotionally connected to their work, and when they are emotionally connected to their work, they will be at the top of their game and bring their best to work every day.
People are looking to work for, become part of, an organization that values them and their ideas. How do you do that? Empower and Engage your Employees!