Why is Employee Engagement the Top Priority of Business Organizations?

5 Effective Benefits of Employee Engagement in a Workplace

1. Lowers absenteeism

Some of the evident research has come across as an eye-opener for many organizations regarding the cost they have to bear because of the high absenteeism in their workforces.

As per the stats by Absenteeism: The Bottom-Line Killer, unscheduled absenteeism costs roughly $3,600 per year for each worker working on an hourly basis. In addition, it costs a company $2,660 each year for salaried employees.

On the other hand, along with costs, lower absenteeism also affects the productivity of the employees. To elaborate, when they would take leaves from the office, it would disrupt the workflow of the organization as well as will also affect their productivity.

To continue, lack of employee engagement is one of the major reasons for higher absenteeism in a workplace. Since employees are not engaged and motivated to indulge in the co-workspace, they often decide to take leaves to avoid work and the workplace.

On the other hand, when employees are engaged in an organization, they would want to come to the organization and would like to be a part of the office and its work culture. This would lower the absenteeism rate of the organization and will keep the employees motivated to be more productive and work towards the growth of the company.

To avoid all the loss of cost and productivity, organizations are focusing on keeping employees engaged and motivated in a work environment.

2. Increases customer satisfaction

Business leaders are now becoming well aware of the fact that the way they treat their employees directly impacts the way their employees will treat their customers. The positive or negative attitude of the employees while dealing with the customer completely depends upon their attitude and their feelings towards their organizations.

To elaborate, engaged employees are more likely to be optimistic and friendly while dealing with the customers. Moreover, employees’ enthusiasm and a positive attitude can add up to a positive customer experience. On the other hand, disengaged employees will sound frustrated and dull which can impact the customer experience negatively.

Moreover, employees’ enthusiasm and a positive attitude can add up to a positive customer experience. Furthermore, when customers will have a positive experience with a company, it enhances their satisfaction and fosters good customer relationships.

Moreover, a high customer satisfaction rate can also assist in retaining the existing customers and acquiring new ones. Subsequently, companies are now realizing that all this together can contribute to the increased revenue of the company. Hence, they are focusing on keeping employees happy and engaged in the workplace.

3. Optimized Profitability

Every business in the enterprise world is working with a common objective of earning maximum profits. In order to make that happen, employers need to keep a constant check on the productivity of the employees.

The reason is that productivity is one of the crucial factors that decides the profitability of the company. Moreover, productivity majorly depends on the factors like sincerity, commitment, and determination of employees in working for the growth of the company. On the same hand, all the factors that impact the productivity of the employees are directly linked to the engagement of the employees.

To elaborate, if the employees of an organization are engaged, it will assist in keeping them committed and determined to work for the growth of the company. To validate, a report from Gallup states that a highly engaged workforce is 17% more productive and 21% more profitable than a disengaged workforce.

Hence, in order to run a profitable business, employee engagement is now becoming a top priority of every business organization.

4. Great learning outcomes

The learning outcomes of the employees decide the efficiency of the workforce and the growth of the organization. Moreover, the urge of learning in employees always arises from their willingness to learn and enhance their knowledge base. In addition to the same, their willingness and determination to learn will be affected by their engagement in the workplace.

When employees will be engaged in learning more about their field, it will assist in keeping them motivated and determined to learn. Moreover, as employee motivation is really important, this way engaged employees will actively take part in the upskilling and reskilling programs arranged by the organization.

Engaged employees with effective skills will assist in contributing their innovative and unique ideas to the growth of the company by creating various strategies and tactics which will benefit the organization.

In order to increase efficiency and take advantage of the great learning outcomes, companies are now majorly prioritizing the engagement of the employees in the workplace.

5. Enhances Retention

Whenever a company hires new employees, they hire it with the expectation that the new hires will stay with them for a long time. Because let’s face it, How will a company earn profit in a market if they have to hire new employees every six months because former employees did not want to continue?

When an employee leaves a company, it not only disrupts the workflow of the organization but also costs the company their invested time and effort in training the employees. Different studies show that losing an employee can cost 1.5 - 2 times the annual salary of the employee.

Hence, it has become crucial for employers to enhance the retention rate of employees in order to avoid the cost of turnover. To elaborate, the major reason behind employee turnover is the lack of employee engagement. The employees do want to stay in a place where they are not engaged and motivated to perform the given responsibilities. Lack of engagement can happen due to multiple reasons such as

• Lack of growth opportunities

• Lack of recognition and appreciation

• Negative work environment

• Seniors practice micromanagement

Elimination of these negative factors can assist companies in engaging their employees in the workplace and motivate them to work for the betterment of the company. Moreover, engagement of employees will lead to more job satisfaction and this will further increase their retention rate in the workforce.

Therefore, in order to retain employees within the company for a long period of time, keeping employees engaged has become one of the top priorities of the organizations.

Probing ahead, after understanding the key significance of employee engagement in a business. Now it is time to have a look at certain actionable strategies that can help business organizations in engaging their employees effectively.

2. Foster the culture of open communication -

It does not matter whether you are operating remotely or on-site, communication is one of the basic pillars that define the success of every company. Hence, it is crucial for organizations to foster a culture of open communication. This will allow employees to openly communicate their ideas and concerns to the higher management without any fear. You also need to make sure that you message pr feedback is clear and concise in terms of delivering the message so that employees gets a clarity on the expectations of the company from them. For effectively communicating, you can use 7Cs of communication.

That being the case, managers can organize various meetings and feedback sessions with both remote and onsite employees. In sessions, management can anonymously or openly take feedback from employees on various future decisions, the company’s working culture, and so on.

This will make employees feel like an integral part of the organization and will assist in keeping them engaged and motivated.

3. Create a powerful onboarding process -

As per SHRM, if employees experience a positive onboarding experience, it boosts their productivity by 50%. Moreover, a smooth onboarding process can make 69% of employees stay with a company for more than three years.

Hence, employers can create a strong onboarding experience in order to engage employees and make them more productive. This will encourage them to work towards the growth of the company.

A positive onboarding experience is even more crucial for remote workers because not being in touch physically can make them feel excluded. This can further disengage them and can result in enhancing the turnover rate of the company. Companies can organize virtual meetings for new hires and provide them with effective mediums through which they can communicate with their colleagues. This will assist in making employees feel valued and will engage them more effectively.

4. Promote mental wellness -

Employees often experience mental stress during hectic work schedules. However, continuous stress can lead to mental burnout which can negatively impact the mental health of the employees.

Hence, employers can ensure that employees do not have continuous encounters with stress. Moreover, employers can organize various mental health programs, webinars, or workshops in order to make sure that employees are well prepared to effectively handle stress.

This will assist employees in managing their stress and the efforts of the company toward employees’ care will assist in keeping employees engaged.

5. Invest in the right technology -

Technology assists in relieving the burden from the shoulders of employees by automating some simple tasks. That is the reason that technology now becomes a major factor that keeps employees happy and satisfied at the workplace.

Therefore, employers can focus on choosing the right technology to provide comfort to their employees. Employers can introduce the company’s portal to get and provide instant information to the employees and eliminate the need of circulating information manually.

Along with this, leaders need to make sure that their technology is easy to operate and is easy to comprehend for employees. So that their workload decreases instead of increasing because of complex technology.

To encapsulate, it does not matter which working culture is practiced at your organization, employees are the crucial pillar that defines the success of your organization. Moreover, looking at the benefits organizations are availing through employee engagement, it is safe to say that it has now become a necessity for organizations to keep employee engagement as their top priority. Moreover, the above given effective strategies can assist in engaging employees more efficiently.