Employee engagement is the heartbeat of a thriving organization and an equally essential indicator in measuring work satisfaction. It refers to the emotional commitment employees have towards their work, the company’s goals, and its values. When employees are engaged, they are not just showing up to work; they are actively involved, motivated, and passionate about their contributions. This level of commitment is invaluable for several reasons, making employee engagement a crucial factor in organizational success.

Belonging ranked top in the Global Human Capital Trends survey, and 79% of respondents mentioned that including a sense of belonging in the workforce was essential for the success of their company in the upcoming year. 93% nodded that belonging promotes organizational performance.

Irrespective of employee engagement being in high demand in companies, most workers are disengaged at work. As per Gallup data, the aggregate percentage of engaged workers declined from 39% in 2021 to 34% this year.

Low employee engagement occurs because of several factors, such as no recognition from managers, improper communication, and lack of knowledge of the company’s mission and goals. Further, employee engagement is a strategic business goal as engaged employees promote business retention, better employee performance, and higher work quality leading to the company’s success.

 

What is employee engagement?

Someone who is completely engrossed by and enthusiastic about their work and makes all the effort to boost their organization’s success and reputation. An engaged employee works positively for the betterment of their company and its values.

On the other hand, a disengaged employee does the bare minimum required at work and doesn’t care about the company’s productivity, profits, and reputation.

Employee engagement further promotes concepts like employee experience and satisfaction, which is more about the employee’s journey in the company.

Reasons employee engagement matters in an organization

When a worker is dedicatedly invested in a company, they will do everything they can to help it grow; this is where you have accomplished the renowned “employee engagement.” But why is employee engagement important? How significant is it to contribute to a company’s success? In simple words, “a lot.”

It puts your organization’s productivity, customer satisfaction, and profits at stake. Here are reasons why employee engagement helps your company.

1. Rise in profitability

Your bottom line is always profits. A major factor leading to it is investing in good employee engagement tactics. A completely engaged team will outperform an unengaged team at any time. Several kinds of research prove this theory. For instance, a Gallup study exhibited that companies with engaged workers enjoyed greater earnings per share and recovered better from the recession.

2. Boost retention rates

Obviously, employees with high engagement have fewer chances of leaving their jobs and looking for new ones. In fact, a recentstudy revealed that an engaged workforce has lower turnover rates than unengaged employees. A higher retention rate calls for reduced recruitment costs, which helps increase morale.

3. Improvement in workspace happiness

A mere 12% of workers leave for a job for better pay. Most employees seek recognition and appreciation for their work and contribution. It doesn’t necessarily mean a raise; you have more ways to satisfy your working class, including timely feedback, appreciation, and individual recognition. Happy employees offer better productivity and are highly engaged.

4. Better productivity

A Gallup poll with over 1 million respondents revealed that teams with engaged workers outperformed teams with disengaged members. As per Dale Carnegie’s study, companies with engaged workers outperformed the disengaged teams by up to 202%.

5. Innovative results

Engaged employees are welcoming to innovative ideas and new trends. They look for ways to improve their work quality instead of performing the bare minimum.

6. Connected workforce

Companies understand that good workplace places are inclined to value and build connections amongst their employees. This helps them meet the basic needs of the workforce and keeps them connected. A connected workplace culture inspires communications and leads to a rise in productivity. In most cases, connected employees spend time after work which further adds to company loyalty.

7. More communication

Engaged employees have higher chances of communicating openly with their co-workers than those who are not so engaged.

8. Better collaboration

Engaged employees who communicate well are likely to collaborate more. Collaboration reduces the workload of teams and reduces conflicts. Collaboration has become simpler with cloud technology, IoT, and apps like Slack.

9. More dedicated and committed

Engaged employees remain committed to their organization even during tough times. This also increases their continuity, building a sturdier employer brand.

10. Better recruitment rates

A workplace with engaged employees will attract productive candidates who will be engaged as your current workforce. Happy and connected teams are likely to recommend their employer to their people.

How can you measure employee engagement?

Now that you know why employee engagement is important, it is essential to know how much your employees are engaged, so you can actually take steps towards it. So, how do you gauge employee engagement? An effective way to get precise results is with employee surveys.

Types of surveys to assess employee engagement

• Employee engagement surveys

A full-fledged employee engagement survey helps managers know engagement at the organizational level. The employee engagement surveys include questions that are time proven to assess their engagement.

• Pulse surveys

Pulse surveys help companies collect real-time feedback on specific topics. It is essential during the transition phase, such as mergers, acquisitions, or management changes.

• Employee lifecycle surveys

These surveys help gather feedback from employees during their important moments in their duration at the company. Some examples are:

1. New recruitment survey: What do recruits think about the onboarding procedure? What was their opinion on the first month, second month, and sixth month? What do they expect in the future? The right questions will help you acquire insight into how engaging the new hires are.
2. Retention survey: Why are the employees still working in the organization? What forces them to leave? What are the steps to boost retention? Questions like these will help you avoid unwanted talent loss.
3. Exit survey: The exit survey helps you know why employees leave the company. How did the turnover affect the employees? What steps can be taken to prevent the rest from leaving?

Work towards a measurement strategy

Regardless of the survey companies use to assess employee engagement, they should always keep the end goal as their top priority. Check out the results of the survey and back on them. Question yourself:

• Who will be accountable for these results?
• Who needs to act upon the results?
• What does the activity include?

Different approaches to measuring engagement

1. Assess across the company

Go for an organization-wide engagement survey to set up a baseline. It will offer you a complete view of their strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities. It will also provide a benchmark for the workforce in your company.

2. Evaluate across teams and groups

With the organizational data in hand, every nuance in the groups and teams can be understood. Look for areas that need more research and deploy strategies to get that information, such as pulse surveys.

3. Gauge amongst individuals

Surveys are not the only tool to assess employee engagement. Tools like one-on-one discussions, meetings, feedback, and recognition also help assess engagement at the singular level.

Apart from assessing across groups, measuring employee engagement at different stages of their life cycle is also important.

Steps to prepare an employee engagement action plan

An employee engagement action plan is where all the magic happens. Action plans help you:

• Know the major engagement drivers
• Look forward to changes that will make the highest impact
• Make every employee accountable for the employee engagement strategy results

Steps to create an efficient employee engagement action plan

1. Assess survey results thoroughly

After the survey results are out, dig deep. Check for the places of improvement and look out for themes and patterns, if there are any. Motivate leaders to review results with the team members.

2. Pick focus areas

After reviewing the data, pick two or more focus areas to discover more. Rank focus areas depending on their impact level and how much effort it will need to move towards the positive.

3. Come up with solutions

Develop focus groups and allocate them to target areas to brainstorm ideas. Discuss the challenges, develop solutions, and translate employee engagement ideas to yield results.

4. Make commitments

After the actions are decided, it is time to develop the action plan. Ensure to include timelines, goals, and commitments in the plan. Outline the important areas and ensure the plan doesn’t fall through any gap.

5. Share progress

The work is not complete after the action plan is made. The follow-up progress is assessed to ensure that desired results are produced.

Best practices for employee engagement

Today, employee engagement is more than a survey. Here are some effective employee engagement practices that help enhance the efforts. These practices will help make a difference in the team experience.

• Restate the areas of strength

Yes, there is always a chance of improvement. Do not be afraid to highlight your strengths and weaknesses. Share engagement wins, and socializing success results with the employees. If employees give positive input, they are likely to be engaged.

• Unite engagement with business results

Everyone should be on board to make an engagement plan successful. Link the engagement efforts to business results to boost sales, customer satisfaction, financial results, and more. If the leaders and employees know the impact of engagement on their business, they will be more invested in the practice.

• See engagement as a strategy instead of an activity

To move the needle on engagement, it is important to practice it as a consistent strategy, not a project to attempt and forget. Employees don’t feel supported if engagement is practiced only once in a while. If companies prioritize engagement all through the year, a better engagement and higher return on investment are collected.

Importance of effective coaching in engagement

Encouraging an effective coaching culture in the company can help connect employees and keep them engaged. Employee engagement is not just limited to current productivity; it is about developing, retaining, and growing the workforce for the future. It is important to engage the workforce with agility, and it can be accomplished when they are trained, reskilled, cross-skilled, and up-skilled to meet the present and future demands.

It is obvious that a worker lingering in a job position for years without any growth and potential to advance feels demotivated and loses productivity. Hence, it is always better to train and upskill employees to meet the company’s demands and help them be motivated.

When a worker grows, it is not just their growth but the company’s growth. Every professional needs to diversify their skills to stimulate valuable growth.

It further helps them stay connected and take better steps towards progress. Restricted talent management tends to disengage employees, who only work to meet the bare minimum. Leaders drive long-lasting transformation and growth at scale by choosing personalized coaching solutions.

uExcelerate is an ideal platform to help develop employee engagement in your company. One of uExcelerate’s major focusareas is to help companies develop coaching cultures and future-oriented, agile mindsets. By recruiting a coach, the company gives the employees a platform to share their thoughts and gain freedom and support for better engagement.

• uExcelerate allows companies to run customized programs for their teams, addressing their problems, burnout issues, and demotivated thoughts through one-on-one or group coaching, offering better engagement formats.
• It helps companies draft modular program designs to help employees develop agile mindsets.
• It helps companies set goals and commit to action and manage disengaged employees in pursuit of their lost goals.
• It helps companies measure their progress in real-time through action planning and goal setting.
• It also keeps the managers, leaders, and sponsors in the loop and keeps them connected to their employees.
• It offers feedback on the consistent improvement of the program.

So, with the right coaching program, companies can gain effectiveness and understand the ROI and maintain the high-quality employee engagement they have always wanted.

Conclusion

It is always important to continue increasing your information panel to expand your employee engagement knowledge and take steps to prevent any disengagement. Practice the above-given methods and see how it revives the engagement levels of your employees in your company.

 

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