In a year as tumultuous as 2020, employee engagement can be key to building a successful business. Improving your employee engagement results in employees who are more committed to their jobs, will do their best even when the manager is not watching, and are willing to go the extra mile. Simply put, engaged employees lead to better business outcomes.
In case you needed more convincing, overall, companies with high employee engagement are 21% more profitable. This means that in the years ahead, the most successful organizations will be those who make employee engagement central to their business strategy.
Companies with engaged employees show better results across multiple levels of the business. According to Gallup, engaged employees:
- Increase productivity by 17%
- Increase customer ratings by 10%
- Increase sales by 20%
- Increase profitability by 21%
Most companies have their work cut out for them, with a State of the Global Workforce poll reporting that 85% of employees are not engaged in the workforce. This is a huge number that can affect a company’s bottom line. According to a report by The Engagement Institute—a joint study by The Conference Board, Sirota-Mercer, Deloitte, ROI, The Culture Works and Consulting LLP – disengaged employees can end up cost U.S. companies up to $550 billion a year. Yikes.
So, how can you work to increase employee engagement? There are a few key, but important, steps that your company needs to take in order to make employees feel empowered and heard in their roles.
The first step is to make sure you are giving everyone the tools they need to be successful in their roles. This applies even more to managers who play a huge role in determining whether employees are committed to the organizations they work for or not. Once employees start to feel stuck, or worse set up to fail, they will disengage pretty quickly. Asking employees what they need to be successful, and then providing them with those tools, is the first step to achieving higher employee engagement.
The next important piece is communication. According to a salesforce report, employees who feel their voice is heard are 4.6 times more likely to feel empowered to perform their best work. This means that the employee cares whether the company succeeds and approaches their work with enthusiasm.
Setting up a convenient and consistent way for employees and their managers to communicate with each other means that everyone will be on the same page and always feel like they are ‘in the loop’. This provides an outlet for employees to reach out, connect, and even voice their concerns. Effective leaders pay close attention to what workers have to say and then act on the feedback.
Today, we do just about everything with our phones. So, it only makes sense that your employees should have access to a communication center on their phones. An employee management app that includes a chat and newsfeed is a great way to make sure you’re providing a channel for employees to feel heard and provide them with the support they need.
