Why Pursuing Employee Engagement Is Time Well Spent

An interesting article in HR Magazine dug into how companies perceive the bottom-line benefit of employee engagement. The article includes an update from the UK Task Force on Engagement, chaired by David MacLeod, who commented:

“How big a task lies ahead for the Task Force? MacLeod believes one small camp of employers is totally convinced employee engagement delivers commercial results, while another small camp doesn’t believe in it at all. ‘But the vast majority are in the middle. They are interested in getting results, but they don’t believe in it passionately,’ he says. ‘To make change, we need to show proof, and kick-start the passion. Thousands of organisations out there still want to know that pursuing engagement is time well spent.’”

That’s the crux for most organizations today – what’s in it for the bottom line or is engagement just a “fluffy nice-to-have?”

The bottom-line value of engagement is clear:

1) Increasing employee engagement by 15% increases operating margin by 2% (Towers Watson)

2) Engaged employees lead to financial business success, not the other way around (Gallup)

3) Engaged employees generate 43% more revenue and can boost performance by 200% (Hay Group – as referenced in the HR Magazine article)

Think what it could do for your organization if you could help just 10% of your “neutral” employees want to engage more fully.

The big question is how? Organizations cannot engage employees. You can only create an environment in which employees choose to engage. Globoforce customers regularly achieve double-digit increases in employee engagement in less than year. Strategic recognition is the key.

Strategic recognition – frequent, specific, timely, and values-based appreciation and acknowledgment of employee actions and behaviors – clearly communicates to employees:

1) What the organization/team/department needs them to focus on to be successful

2) The value the employee brings to the group

3) Encouragement to keep performing at a top level

A small investment in strategic recognition can return out-sized dividends in employee engagement – and your bottom line. Are you pursuing employee engagement in your organization? How? Are the efforts successful or “more fluff?”

 


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