Why is employee engagement important for business

Engaged employees are a key factor in business success, while unengaged employees can hurt a company's profits.

According to a Gallup report, in 2020, the global average employee engagement was 20%. This figure is slightly better in the USA - 35%. The same report states that unengaged labour costs the American economy $8 trillion. At the same time, 73% of employees in the best companies are engaged.

We hope these metrics demonstrate the importance of engagement, but just in case, here are 5 more reasons why employee engagement is crucial to a company's success:

1. A positive and friendly environment within the company has a positive effect on employees, who in turn will show a better attitude towards customers.
2. Motivated employees work harder. The more an employee is interested in the company's success, the more time they spend on work and get distracted less.
3. A satisfied and engaged employee is less likely to quit. At the same time, high employee turnover implies that costs of hiring and training new employees will significantly increase the company's financial losses.
4. Engaged employees are more interested in their tasks, tend to come up with more ideas and contribute to the improvement of the company. Engagement leads to innovation.
5. Engaged employees are better at absorbing information, including important alerts. Such employees will not miss a security notice or change in company policy and are less likely to make a mistake.

• Understanding and adhering to corporate culture
• Encouraging individual projects, entrepreneurial spirit
• Support for new employees
• Regular encouragement of successes and achievements
• Ability to openly receive and give feedback
• Mutual respect of employees and managers
• Encouraging of learning, improvement
• Openness
• Providing access to all the necessary tools and resources

Communication

A company must ensure an open and honest dialogue between management and employees. Employees need to know about the state of the business, problems, important news and it is better to give them this information first-hand. This way the team will trust the company more and be more loyal. It is also important to remember the importance of feedback, do not forget to give feedback to colleagues and always encourage it. Development is impossible without good communication.

Corporate culture

The corporate culture allows you to create an open and friendly team. But in order for it to work, it is important to fulfil several conditions: 1) the values of the company must be recorded and available to any employee as a guide to action; 2) the culture should be understandable and relatable to all employees; 3) corporate values must constantly change to meet current conditions.

Encouragement and motivation

Managers must not forget about rewarding employees for their achievements. There is no need to wait for a big occasion or to belittle the merits. Managers should monitor the progress of the employees and celebrate the positive results. We advise not only to praise the employee in general but to mark specific points, so the feedback will be more personal and valuable for them. At the same time, encouragement does not have to be expressed in a cash bonus, often praise and recognition are enough.

Professional growth

Employees appreciate when the company gives them the opportunity to grow: learn new skills, perform more challenging and interesting tasks, and get promotions. The scheme for obtaining a promotion is especially important. It is necessary to talk with employees about how progress is assessed and career growth is realised in the company. If employees understand what needs to be done to get promoted, they will be more engaged.

Since you are reading this article, you are interested in increasing engagement, which is half of the success. An important step in working with team involvement is to measure it at the beginning. Then you will need to regularly survey employees, asking them the same questions, for example, once a week. Then, using the obtained data, it will be possible to track progress, understand the effectiveness of solutions and, most importantly, introduce new solutions to increase engagement based on feedback.

For more information on conducting surveys, see our article on employee surveys. Here are a few engagement questions that you can use and optimise for your team. The questions are structured according to the type of ordinal rating scale ("choose a level from 1 to 10").

Questions to assess employee engagement

1. I know what is expected of me at work.
2. I have everything I need to carry out my duties.
3. Every day I have the opportunity to do what I do best.
4. I have been complimented at least once in the last week.
5. Professional development is encouraged in my company.
6. I understand and agree with the values of my company.
7. My opinion is taken into account.
8. I am taken care of as a person, not just as an employee.
9. My colleagues do their job well.
10. Over the past six months, I have discussed my progress as a professional.
11. I know what I have to achieve in order to get promoted.

Of course, there cannot be one person in a company responsible for such an important aspect of the business. Each team member has their own responsibilities in this regard. Let's talk about it.

Top management

In the company, senior management is primarily responsible for strategic planning. Communicating with the largest number of people, managers have the opportunity to understand where the company needs to move, including in terms of internal communications. Remember that all changes, especially important ones, need to be communicated back to the team, as this will affect them directly. Another key responsibility of a leader is to be the representation of the corporate culture and to motivate others to follow it.

Internal Communications Specialist

HR managers are those who put strategies into practice. The main concern of an internal communications specialist is to make sure that all employees have the opportunity to share feedback, and then to collect it and analyse it correctly. Of course, HR should be able to solve communication problems and resolve occurring conflicts. And in addition to monitoring the observance of corporate culture and striving to develop it.

Managers

The role of the manager is to be a mentor. The manager should be open to communication, understand the work process, monitor the progress of employees and praise them. It is the manager who becomes the main representative of the corporate culture in the daily life of employees and they must follow it and be an example.

Employees

After adopting an internal communications strategy, introducing new tools to increase engagement and writing guides with corporate values, the company has almost no influence on further events. Feedback from the team is needed to move forward. This is the main task of employees - to give feedback. If employees are honestly sharing their feelings, the workflow will only become more comfortable for them. This needs to be explained to employees first.

Millennials (people under 40 and over 20) now make up 30% of the world's population and over 40% of employees in any company. They actively use social networks, for example, Instagram, and most of them know and love Stories. It is not surprising, because this format is the most engaging, the user sees the Story and their engagement immediately rises. So why do companies still use old communication methods, email, messengers, town-hall meetings, stubbornly ignoring the format of Stories?

Workstories allows you to share information and content with employees in the most engaging format possible. The pop-up format will ensure 100% readability and no one will miss important announcements. And built-in feedback and survey functionality make Workstories an all-inclusive internal communications tool.