Three out of four businesses have no strategy in place for employee engagement, despite engaged employees working harder, being more loyal and boosting profits. Here are the best ways to lift your brokers' engagement - along with your bottom line.
Three out of four businesses have no strategy in place for employee engagement, despite engaged employees working harder, being more loyal and boosting profits. Here are the best ways to lift your brokers' engagement - along with your bottom line.
Findings released by Dale Carnegie Training and MSW research reveal that just 29% of employees are engaged, and 26% are actively disengaged. Failing to act on these statistics, warned the report, could have a serious impact on profit margins.
“Today, employee engagement and loyalty are more vital than ever before to an organization’s success and competitive advantage,” said the report.
“Gone are the days when a young person starting out in his or her career joined a company and stayed until retirement – in today’s business environment there are no guarantees.”
Almost 70% of disengaged employees would change employers for as little as a 5% pay increase, said the report. Engaged employees would need at least a 20% increase to make the same switch.
“Experts predict the current turnover rate may rise to 65%. With recruiting costs running approximately 1.5 times annual salary, the ability to engage and retain valuable employees has a significant impact on an organization’s bottom line.”
Engaging employees, said the report, comes down to the ability of managers to make them feel inspired, enthusiastic, empowered, confident and valued. The study found that 95% of employees that felt three of these emotions at work were actively engaged.
“Employees want their managers to care about their personal lives, to take an interest in them as people, to care about how they feel and support their health and well-being.
“In too many organizations, employees are viewed as an asset to be managed rather than as individuals who can create the next innovation for success.”
Being accessible and ensuring employees feel as though they can voice their opinions and be listened to is key to fostering engagement, said the report.
“Workers’ perception of senior leaders tends to be less positive than their perception of immediate supervisors, possibly because they are distanced from management and more likely to concentrate blame for all problems in the organization on the executives.
“Leaders have to project a positive manner in all interactions with other managers and employees and be accessible to them.”
Conducting regular questionnaires and face-to-face interviews, then acting on the results in a visible way makes employees feel that their thoughts are valued and builds a more positive perception of management among employees, the study found.
However, mangers must take care to ask the right questions and be responsive or attempts at employee engagement may have the opposite effect.
“If employees think the person conducting the interview does not value their opinion, they will become disillusioned, which leads to complete disengagement.”
Encouraging teamwork and co-operation among employees also helps to foster friendships between employees, meaning they are more likely to look forward to coming in to work.
Workers that felt good about social responsibility of their company were also twice as likely to be engaged, said the report.
Financial incentives and flexible working hours are common strategies for increasing engagement and employee retention, but in reality positive personal relationships within the company are the deciding factor in the way an employee feels about their place of work.
“Workers can't be critiqued into performing better, but being insulted by the immediate supervisor ensures an emotional disconnect and disengagement.”
“Praise publicly, reprimand in private and coach individuals who do not demonstrate behaviours that encourage engagement.”
