Have you ever thought about the importance of employee engagement in a company? Maybe you've thought about it at least once, or even hundreds of times until now. Employee engagement must be the main consideration for business success, because your investment, employees' interest, and employees' commitment to work will determine your success. If the employee feels engaged with the company, then everything will work just fine or maybe better. Why is employee engagement important? We will discuss in this article.
What is employee engagement?
Employee engagement is a function of the relationship between employees and the organization. It's all about making employees more connected and dedicated to the company, creating a positive culture to achieve the company's goals and improve the workplace from all aspects. Employee engagement is based on communication, trust and integrity between the organization and its employees.
Engagement is needed in the organization, because if employees are not bonding with other team members or have no views on advancing the company, then employees have different thoughts about how they get their work done. Every employee will not be connected, all work becomes more difficult, and there is no trust between employees and the organization will lower retention rates.
What is the impact of employee engagement in organization?
There are 3 key impacts of employee engagement on business results. Some of the impacts that we will mention below will occur if employee engagement is low in the organization, and a disengaged workforce in business occurs. Some of the key impacts are profit losses, growth stagnation, and staff turnover. Why is that? because disengaged employees are less likely to collaborate, they don't know which direction to go, and lack of innovation.
Staff turnover is something that needs to be avoided in an organization, because hiring an employee costs a lot. Not only costs, but also time to adapt new employees to their jobs, starting from recruitment to onboarding costs. The productivity will be decline because someone new needs adaptation to their new job.
Every employee hired by the company is an asset and can be considered as an investment. If turnover is at a high level, it means the company will face a low return on investment. A lot of time will be wasted teaching new employees, and you can't focus on company progress and lead to growth stagnation.
12 Unique Culture Building Activities for Employees
Companies that continue to be at the same level will reduce the trust of their employees, because they also feel they cannot develop further in terms of their skills and income. This imbalance will continue to roll and can cause a worse impact on the company, such as bankruptcy or hard to survive.
Why is employee engagement important in organizational development?
The importance of employee engagement is directly proportional to the benefits that will be obtained when the company has a high engaged workforce. The good impact can be felt by the company both in the short-term and long-term period, and can become a positive culture that continues with company progress.
Employee engagement is crucial for inspiring commitment, communication, quality work, and value in your employees. Engagement will lead to optimal employee performance and experience. We will provide a comparison of engaged employees and disengaged employees. The two can be easily distinguished, because an engaged employee will care deeply about the company and business, while a disengaged employee is someone who feels negatively about the company and is apathetic about your business.
- Randy is an engaged employee. He spends his lunch time talking to coworkers or managers he likes and respects. Randy does not hesitate to share the ideas he has, and collaborate with the team to complete tasks more quickly. He meets all his deadlines and offers himself if there is more work he can do during his free time.
- Lydia is a disengaged employee. She has a difficulty completing her to-do list, but she has no motivation to ask about clarification of what she needs to finish, and tries to finish it herself. The project was hampered because Lydia couldn't finish it and no one helped. She spends her lunch time looking for a new workplace, and feels uncomfortable talking to anyone in the office. Lydia never wanted to talk during meetings, and didn't understand what she should do for the company in the future, because the company also didn't give clear directions.
Best employee engagement ideas for your organization
After you know why is employee engagement important, we need to find employee engagement ideas and implement them in your organization.
- Boost employees' motivation by providing personal recognition and appreciation
Recognition and appreciation are rocket fuel for an engaged workforce. Every employee likes being noticed and praised for their hard work. Show your employees that you care about their work, and they will provide commitment, dedication and motivation to achieve the company's goals.
You can show appreciation and recognition whenever you want, and not only be reserved for meetings. Every morning before starting work, right before leaving work, Monday, or the day before the weekend are the right times to give appreciation to employees.
- Increase collaboration
Foster team collaboration will help employees to see how their individual skills and efforts will impact team success. Employees who can collaborate with people will be better able to meet deadlines or have free time after completing their tasks and come up with standout ideas to go the extra mile.
Team collaboration will show that every employee has contributed to the progress of the company, and bond the team to be more solid and make them proud of what they are doing together.
- Team building activity
Invite employees to do outdoor activities and do team activities to build connections, solidity, and communications. Look for events or activities that can forge new connections and sprout new friendships. Combine employees who rarely talk to each other in one team, or combine all employees to become one big group to complete one event together. Making tents together, solving puzzles, looking for treasure outside, outbound activities, are some examples of team building activities that you can choose from.
- Got to know your team
As a good leader, you need to get to know your team. Go to every employee and chat about whatever you want to discuss, from work to hobbies or news. By knowing the characteristics of each employee and the skills they have, employees will feel close to their leaders and start building a good work environment.
Not many leaders want to take the time to chat with employees, because they are too busy with work matters and only focus on the progress of the company without paying attention to their employees. Change these habits, and show your employees that you care about them, understand what they want and what they need.
- Have a lunch or dinner together
Employee engagement can be done outside working hours. Take the time to gather employees at lunch time, or invite all employees for dinner and the company will bear the cost of the meal. Use this special moment to talk freely with employees, create bonds between employees and close the gap between higher ups and employees. That way, employees will increase their trust and respect for coworkers, and consider the office as their second family because of the closeness of each employee.
- Seamlessly onboard new hires to teams
Onboarding is one way to get early engagement between new hires and coworkers and higher ups. New hires don't need to be confused about adapting, because engaged employees have a desire to help coworkers find out about their jobs, collaborate to achieve company goals with a positive attitude. Don't forget to retain the top talent by creating employee training and good onboarding.
Onboarding has a huge role in engagement and employee retention. Employees can choose whether they will continue to be at the company by seeing how they progress in the first few months there.
Why is employee engagement important? Now we know the answers, and try to do our best about it. Our task now is to maintain these good engagements to get the best employee performance, a solid team, and employees who are always passionate about achieving business success. If you need other articles to thrive your business, from a small sized business to a medium sized business, you can visit SMEBrother and get important information about finance, company licensing, and tips on how to run a business well.
