How Important Is Employee Engagement To Your Business?
By Tania M Mallett
"Employee Engagement" has become a buzzword over the past ten
years in particular, with many businesses adopting formal employee
engagement policies, using measurement tools to measure their employees'
engagement and some companies even appointing specific managers and
directors to oversee employee engagement within their organization.
Put simply, the term "Employee Engagement" ("EE") is a business management concept which is used to illustrate how "engaged" an employee feels within an organization, their commitment to that organization and how satisfied they are within their role. However,
I believe that the term "Employee Engagement" does not just refer to how the employee feels, but is also a reference to how the Employer relates to the Employee.
I would usually encourage Employers to think of their Employees as 'Colleagues' as it promotes an ethos of engagement within a company or organization, but for the purposes of this article I will adhere to the terms "Employer" and "Employee" for ease of reference.
There has long been a direct correlation between EE and employee retention. Business owners and employers have realized that in order to retain staff, they must measure and determine the level of employee satisfaction within their organization.
According to the Society of Human Resource Management, it can cost an organization up to $3,500 to replace an $8 an hour employee, so apart from a business development perspective, companies are realizing the financial incentive involved in using EE as a valuable tool to keep staff turnover levels low.
As well as from a financial point of view, businesses are also becoming more aware that using EE within their organization has a number of other valuable advantages, such as retaining talent within the company, increased levels of customer retention and better levels of customer service.
Using EE can also positively affect productivity levels and can even reduce levels of absenteeism, making employees less likely to call in sick at the drop of a hat. These are all examples of extremely positive results which can be achieved when a company decides to place a greater emphasis on the importance of EE.
However, in the last couple of years our world has seen many changes and, in particular, a recession which has hit businesses of all shapes and sizes. This has led to reduced staffing levels and more stress as employers and employees struggle to survive in what can only be described as challenging conditions over the past few years.
As employers reduce their staffing levels, existing staff have had to cope with a heavier workload, longer hours and, in some cases, a lower salary due to pay cuts and tax hikes.
Where before an employer may have recognised the value of EE, its focus has now shifted somewhat onto managing and growing an existing business which may be struggling to keep its head above water during challenging financial times. Therefore, there are less resources and even less time to focus on the value of EE.
Meanwhile, the employee who is also struggling to keep his or her head above water may be under more pressure financially while trying to manage a heavier workload.
The last thing on their mind might be "How satisfied am I in this company on a scale of 1 to 10 right now?" They are unlikely to be thinking, "How can I show my commitment to my employer by helping to increase productivity or improve customer service levels within this organization?"
Instead, both employer and employee may be struggling with two very different sets of circumstances, although both equally valuable and important.
What they may not realise, is that by working together and placing a greater value and emphasis on EE, that they can both get what they want, because ultimately when EE comes into play, the needs of both employer and employee are, in fact, equally met.
Using Employee Engagement In Your Own Organization
There are a number of ways in which you can incorporate an Employee Engagement Strategy within your own business, but for the purposes of this article I am going to focus on what I believe are the main ways in which you can start to do this effectively and in as short a time-frame as possible.
If you can actively incorporate an EE strategy into your own organization and develop these practices, you should start to see results within a few months.
I would recommend you find an easy way to measure these results that not only works for you, but is not too time consuming. It should be something relatively simple, such as carrying out a customer service survey, measuring client levels before the EE strategy was implemented and afterwards, or carrying out a staff survey about six months after you start using engagement tools within the organization to measure morale and staff satisfaction.
Although, when an EE strategy is used correctly, you should start to see physical results, such as productivity increasing and absenteeism decreasing.
EE does not require any direct financial investment, unless you decide to invest in staff training, for example; the commitment you are making to your staff is one of time. Dedicating time to engaging with your employees and assessing their own engagement levels within your company is an investment which will pay dividends later on, but in order for this to work you must make the commitment to begin with.
Carry Out A Staff Survey
Initially you should ask your staff to participate in a survey. Depending on your organization, you may wish to do this anonymously as you will generally find people more forthcoming and honest about their situation if they can speak freely without risking their own position, or at the risk of "management" bringing them in for further questioning, as it were. Keep the survey as light as you can and focus on positive language as much as possible.
This is the first step you will take to engage your employees in conversation and to assess how engaged they are within their own roles in the organization, so remember this when compiling your survey questions. As each organization is different, there is no one survey which "fits all" but using quite general questions that will not offend or upset any one group is essential.
Once you have the results of the Staff Survey, you should be able to ascertain which areas of EE need the most attention. For some organizations, employee dissatisfaction may be centered around issues such as salary or lack of promotion.
For example, be prepared to receive answers such as "I don't think I get paid enough for what I do" or "I've been trying to get promoted for years but it hasn't happened and I'm fed up".
Sometimes carrying out a survey among staff can be a real eye-opener so be prepared to face some truths you didn't want to face before! Remember - if you are going to embrace EE it's all or nothing - no half measures unfortunately, otherwise it simply won't work.
It is also important to address the area of how your employees relate to and engage with one another. There may be internal issues within your organization of which you are unaware, so to adequately assess the results of your survey in order to measure current staff engagement levels, you will need to make sure you include questions on your survey which relate to "Management", "Co-Workers" or "Peers" and how your employees view others.
This is important, as it will give you a picture of how each section of your company relates to each other. For example, you may receive comments from staff members which criticise other areas of the company, such as the IT Department or the HR Department. Be prepared to hear comments such as "IT never answer the phones when I call" or "HR treat me like I am just a number". You might also see answers such as, "Management don't even know who I am" or "I've never seen the MD, I know where her office is, but she has never spoken to me... "
While it is difficult as an employer or business owner to hear and read these comments, it is vital that you take on board how your employees view the culture within the organization. If your company promotes an ethos whereby employees feel they are listened to, understood and cared about, they will want to stay in the company and will not seek employment elsewhere. The benefit of this is that you retain their talent, expertise and experience. Imagine losing your best employee to a rival company because you didn't listen to him or her! They've spent 5 or 6 years building up their career in your company, bringing in new clients, developing themselves and becoming so good that, when the time is right, another organization comes along and snaps them up, all because you didn't have time to listen to what they were trying to tell you.
A word of caution... once you gather the data you need you must be prepared to act on the feedback you receive, otherwise the exercise is pointless and a waste of time (and, possibly, money if you engage the services of a professional survey company to assist you - and if you do, you must ensure they are experienced in dealing with staff and phrasing questions sensitively and appropriately). You must be prepared to really examine what is driving disengagement within your organization and then take the appropriate steps to remedy this.
Take The Necessary Steps To Make Things Better
Once you are armed with your survey results, you will immediately know the areas you need to focus on. While it may not be financially practical or possible to give everyone a pay rise or bonus, try to think of other ways in which you can compensate your staff for the work they do. Remember - increased productivity and improved customer service levels are two potential advantages to EE so it is worthwhile investing in your employees to improve their engagement within the organization. There are other ways in which we can invest in our staff without providing financial incentives, such as giving "Bonus Days" to employees who perform well and are not absent through illness. While there is a cost to the company when giving an employee a bonus day, you are also potentially balancing this cost with an increase in productivity and you may also gain an employee who loves their job and wants to do their very best for the organization they work in. This is a win-win situation for any employer.
You may also need to look at processes within your company, your organizational structure and other improvements that could be made, depending on the type or size of organization you run.
Develop Your Leadership Skills
In order to promote EE within your organization, it goes without saying that you need to demonstrate superb leadership skills. Your employees must see you as someone who is supportive, understanding and credible. You should focus on demonstrating your ability to listen to your employees and be willing to take on board their comments and suggestions. One of the ways in which you can do this, is by holding regular staff engagement sessions. This can be done either on a one-to-one basis, or as Town Hall meeting which is an information session usually used to update your employees and during which an open forum is actively encouraged and promoted. Depending on the size of your organization, you may opt for a one-to-one session with each employee. Focus on listening rather than speaking and try to encourage an open discussion. Promote the ethos within your company that your "door is always open" and try to make time for your employees.
Learn to Monitor Your Employee Behavior Effectively
An engaged and satisfied employee will do a number of things which are both measurable and identifiable. If your employees are emotionally and intellectually committed to your organization they will consistently say positive things about the company, their department and their co-workers. Not only will they work harder, but they will do it cheerfully and without being asked to. They will strive to achieve both their personal and professional best and will remain committed to achieving high productivity levels and, if they work in a customer-led environment, they will strive to not only retain existing customers but work hard to win more. Engaged employees will stay within the organization they work in and will remain committed to doing so.
It is not difficult to tell an engaged employee from a disengaged one - the secret is what you do with the information you are presented with. Do you actively strive to improve things by listening to what your employees are telling you (remember that behavior is not always about what you hear and see, but equally what you don't hear and don't see). Showing up late for work, slovenly behavior, moaning and complaining are all very obvious signs of employee disengagement, but you must also watch for signs of discontentment in other ways - absenteeism through constant and unexplained illness, a usually outgoing employee becoming quiet and uncommunicative, issues with co-workers or complaints received directly from customers are all signs of an employee who is fast becoming disengaged.
If you can incorporate an Employee Engagement Strategy into your workplace you will be amazed at how simply and easily you can improve productivity and reduce problems. It is my belief that an engaged and committed workforce means better customer satisfaction levels and a more profitable organization, so actively using Employee Engagement within your own business can only mean good things for you and for your company.
Put simply, the term "Employee Engagement" ("EE") is a business management concept which is used to illustrate how "engaged" an employee feels within an organization, their commitment to that organization and how satisfied they are within their role. However,
I believe that the term "Employee Engagement" does not just refer to how the employee feels, but is also a reference to how the Employer relates to the Employee.
I would usually encourage Employers to think of their Employees as 'Colleagues' as it promotes an ethos of engagement within a company or organization, but for the purposes of this article I will adhere to the terms "Employer" and "Employee" for ease of reference.
There has long been a direct correlation between EE and employee retention. Business owners and employers have realized that in order to retain staff, they must measure and determine the level of employee satisfaction within their organization.
According to the Society of Human Resource Management, it can cost an organization up to $3,500 to replace an $8 an hour employee, so apart from a business development perspective, companies are realizing the financial incentive involved in using EE as a valuable tool to keep staff turnover levels low.
As well as from a financial point of view, businesses are also becoming more aware that using EE within their organization has a number of other valuable advantages, such as retaining talent within the company, increased levels of customer retention and better levels of customer service.
Using EE can also positively affect productivity levels and can even reduce levels of absenteeism, making employees less likely to call in sick at the drop of a hat. These are all examples of extremely positive results which can be achieved when a company decides to place a greater emphasis on the importance of EE.
However, in the last couple of years our world has seen many changes and, in particular, a recession which has hit businesses of all shapes and sizes. This has led to reduced staffing levels and more stress as employers and employees struggle to survive in what can only be described as challenging conditions over the past few years.
As employers reduce their staffing levels, existing staff have had to cope with a heavier workload, longer hours and, in some cases, a lower salary due to pay cuts and tax hikes.
Where before an employer may have recognised the value of EE, its focus has now shifted somewhat onto managing and growing an existing business which may be struggling to keep its head above water during challenging financial times. Therefore, there are less resources and even less time to focus on the value of EE.
Meanwhile, the employee who is also struggling to keep his or her head above water may be under more pressure financially while trying to manage a heavier workload.
The last thing on their mind might be "How satisfied am I in this company on a scale of 1 to 10 right now?" They are unlikely to be thinking, "How can I show my commitment to my employer by helping to increase productivity or improve customer service levels within this organization?"
Instead, both employer and employee may be struggling with two very different sets of circumstances, although both equally valuable and important.
What they may not realise, is that by working together and placing a greater value and emphasis on EE, that they can both get what they want, because ultimately when EE comes into play, the needs of both employer and employee are, in fact, equally met.
Using Employee Engagement In Your Own Organization
There are a number of ways in which you can incorporate an Employee Engagement Strategy within your own business, but for the purposes of this article I am going to focus on what I believe are the main ways in which you can start to do this effectively and in as short a time-frame as possible.
If you can actively incorporate an EE strategy into your own organization and develop these practices, you should start to see results within a few months.
I would recommend you find an easy way to measure these results that not only works for you, but is not too time consuming. It should be something relatively simple, such as carrying out a customer service survey, measuring client levels before the EE strategy was implemented and afterwards, or carrying out a staff survey about six months after you start using engagement tools within the organization to measure morale and staff satisfaction.
Although, when an EE strategy is used correctly, you should start to see physical results, such as productivity increasing and absenteeism decreasing.
EE does not require any direct financial investment, unless you decide to invest in staff training, for example; the commitment you are making to your staff is one of time. Dedicating time to engaging with your employees and assessing their own engagement levels within your company is an investment which will pay dividends later on, but in order for this to work you must make the commitment to begin with.
Carry Out A Staff Survey
Initially you should ask your staff to participate in a survey. Depending on your organization, you may wish to do this anonymously as you will generally find people more forthcoming and honest about their situation if they can speak freely without risking their own position, or at the risk of "management" bringing them in for further questioning, as it were. Keep the survey as light as you can and focus on positive language as much as possible.
This is the first step you will take to engage your employees in conversation and to assess how engaged they are within their own roles in the organization, so remember this when compiling your survey questions. As each organization is different, there is no one survey which "fits all" but using quite general questions that will not offend or upset any one group is essential.
Once you have the results of the Staff Survey, you should be able to ascertain which areas of EE need the most attention. For some organizations, employee dissatisfaction may be centered around issues such as salary or lack of promotion.
For example, be prepared to receive answers such as "I don't think I get paid enough for what I do" or "I've been trying to get promoted for years but it hasn't happened and I'm fed up".
Sometimes carrying out a survey among staff can be a real eye-opener so be prepared to face some truths you didn't want to face before! Remember - if you are going to embrace EE it's all or nothing - no half measures unfortunately, otherwise it simply won't work.
It is also important to address the area of how your employees relate to and engage with one another. There may be internal issues within your organization of which you are unaware, so to adequately assess the results of your survey in order to measure current staff engagement levels, you will need to make sure you include questions on your survey which relate to "Management", "Co-Workers" or "Peers" and how your employees view others.
This is important, as it will give you a picture of how each section of your company relates to each other. For example, you may receive comments from staff members which criticise other areas of the company, such as the IT Department or the HR Department. Be prepared to hear comments such as "IT never answer the phones when I call" or "HR treat me like I am just a number". You might also see answers such as, "Management don't even know who I am" or "I've never seen the MD, I know where her office is, but she has never spoken to me... "
While it is difficult as an employer or business owner to hear and read these comments, it is vital that you take on board how your employees view the culture within the organization. If your company promotes an ethos whereby employees feel they are listened to, understood and cared about, they will want to stay in the company and will not seek employment elsewhere. The benefit of this is that you retain their talent, expertise and experience. Imagine losing your best employee to a rival company because you didn't listen to him or her! They've spent 5 or 6 years building up their career in your company, bringing in new clients, developing themselves and becoming so good that, when the time is right, another organization comes along and snaps them up, all because you didn't have time to listen to what they were trying to tell you.
A word of caution... once you gather the data you need you must be prepared to act on the feedback you receive, otherwise the exercise is pointless and a waste of time (and, possibly, money if you engage the services of a professional survey company to assist you - and if you do, you must ensure they are experienced in dealing with staff and phrasing questions sensitively and appropriately). You must be prepared to really examine what is driving disengagement within your organization and then take the appropriate steps to remedy this.
Take The Necessary Steps To Make Things Better
Once you are armed with your survey results, you will immediately know the areas you need to focus on. While it may not be financially practical or possible to give everyone a pay rise or bonus, try to think of other ways in which you can compensate your staff for the work they do. Remember - increased productivity and improved customer service levels are two potential advantages to EE so it is worthwhile investing in your employees to improve their engagement within the organization. There are other ways in which we can invest in our staff without providing financial incentives, such as giving "Bonus Days" to employees who perform well and are not absent through illness. While there is a cost to the company when giving an employee a bonus day, you are also potentially balancing this cost with an increase in productivity and you may also gain an employee who loves their job and wants to do their very best for the organization they work in. This is a win-win situation for any employer.
You may also need to look at processes within your company, your organizational structure and other improvements that could be made, depending on the type or size of organization you run.
Develop Your Leadership Skills
In order to promote EE within your organization, it goes without saying that you need to demonstrate superb leadership skills. Your employees must see you as someone who is supportive, understanding and credible. You should focus on demonstrating your ability to listen to your employees and be willing to take on board their comments and suggestions. One of the ways in which you can do this, is by holding regular staff engagement sessions. This can be done either on a one-to-one basis, or as Town Hall meeting which is an information session usually used to update your employees and during which an open forum is actively encouraged and promoted. Depending on the size of your organization, you may opt for a one-to-one session with each employee. Focus on listening rather than speaking and try to encourage an open discussion. Promote the ethos within your company that your "door is always open" and try to make time for your employees.
Learn to Monitor Your Employee Behavior Effectively
An engaged and satisfied employee will do a number of things which are both measurable and identifiable. If your employees are emotionally and intellectually committed to your organization they will consistently say positive things about the company, their department and their co-workers. Not only will they work harder, but they will do it cheerfully and without being asked to. They will strive to achieve both their personal and professional best and will remain committed to achieving high productivity levels and, if they work in a customer-led environment, they will strive to not only retain existing customers but work hard to win more. Engaged employees will stay within the organization they work in and will remain committed to doing so.
It is not difficult to tell an engaged employee from a disengaged one - the secret is what you do with the information you are presented with. Do you actively strive to improve things by listening to what your employees are telling you (remember that behavior is not always about what you hear and see, but equally what you don't hear and don't see). Showing up late for work, slovenly behavior, moaning and complaining are all very obvious signs of employee disengagement, but you must also watch for signs of discontentment in other ways - absenteeism through constant and unexplained illness, a usually outgoing employee becoming quiet and uncommunicative, issues with co-workers or complaints received directly from customers are all signs of an employee who is fast becoming disengaged.
If you can incorporate an Employee Engagement Strategy into your workplace you will be amazed at how simply and easily you can improve productivity and reduce problems. It is my belief that an engaged and committed workforce means better customer satisfaction levels and a more profitable organization, so actively using Employee Engagement within your own business can only mean good things for you and for your company.
Tania Mallett is the Owner of Here To Help Business Support
Services based in Dublin, Ireland. She worked at senior executive level
in large multinationals and across many industries for over twenty
years, supporting busy and often very stressed executives and now
provides specialized and bespoke support to start-ups, SMEs and
entrepreneurs. Her belief is that everyone should love their life and is
a strong advocate for work-life balance. Tania's goal is to make life
easier for people - both in their business and in their life by sharing
her knowledge and experience with others.
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