How employee recognition drives employee engagement.

Research consistently shows that just one in three employees are truly engaged, about half are coasting along in a state of disengagement and the rest are active disruptors.

That’s right - about 18% of employees are being paid to disrupt the workplace and damage your brand.

But what exactly is employee engagement, what effects can it have on your business and how can you amplify great employee activity to increase engagement.

The definition of employee engagement.

To put it simply, an engaged employee understands the company’s goals, understands their role in achieving those goals and will go above and beyond to help the company get to where it needs to be.

Why employee engagement is important.

Companies with higher levels of engaged employees continually out-perform the competition.

In fact, 94% of the world’s most successful companies believe that high levels of engagement are a competitive edge. Engaged employees create greater value, are more productive, more connected to the impact their actions have, go above and beyond for customers and more committed to company success. Put simply, engaged employees unite to drive your success.

As many companies have been forced to work from home - or are impacted in other ways by the global pandemic, keeping employees connected to common goals has become even more important.

Employee engagement leads to increased productivity

18% increased productivity (InSync)

Employee engagement leads to increase in quality

41% increase in quality of bottom quartile companies (Gallup)

Employee engagement leads to reduction in turnover

75% reduction in turnover (Globoforce)

Employee engagement leads to increased customer satisfaction

Double the customer satisfaction (Kruse)

Employee engagement leads to profit growth

3 x faster profit growth than competitors (Lupfer)

Employee engaggment leads to better return to shareholder

57% better total return to shareholder (Aon Hewitt)

$305 billion

That’s the staggering cost to the Australian economy
of disengagement according to Ernst & Young’s
Australian Productivity Pulse.

That’s an average of $26,300 per employee.

What does that mean for your company? If you have
100 employees, lack of engagement could be
costing you more than $250,000 per year.

So how can you improve these figures?

How to improve employee engagement.

While there is no single action or activity that will magically improve the numbers on the next HR survey, research on employee engagement commonly finds that the top influences of engagement are not necessarily what you think they might be. Pay comes into the equation, but there are other factors that employees rate more highly when it comes engagement.

Appreciation from managers is one of the top five factors influencing engagement. Interestingly, lack of appreciation also gets cited as one of the key reasons employees leave companies.

Goals are often set around a boardroom table and sometimes that is where they stay. When a clear vision is shared with employees, engagement increases.

Employees thrive on big challenges. Give them an opportunity to step up and not only will they learn valuable skills, engagement will be positively impacted.

Employees want to work in an open and transparent environment, where they feel trust and are trusted.

Employees want a sense of purpose at work. Meaningful projects give them reason to step up and deliver.

Many people are forward thinking and want to know there are opportunities to grow with the company.

Trust that leadership are steering the company in the right direction is a key consideration when it comes to how engaged employees are.