Employee Engagement and Retention: crucial for business success
Employee engagement and retention is a bit of a hot topic at the moment, with a recent survey finding almost 40% of workers planning to change jobs in the next 12 months.
What is Employee Engagement?
When you think of employee engagement, your thoughts may turn to team-building exercises, subsidised or free gym membership, fun themed days and recognising staff anniversaries. It’s common for people to think of fun and benefits as “engagement”, but while they are sometimes effective, these perks are not enough to retain your high performers.
It is important that businesses recognise that high levels of employee engagement lead to better retention rates, happier employees, and a more successful business.
In the current work environment with an unemployment rate at 4.2% and 245,600 job ads posted in December 2021, now more than ever, it is important that you ensure your staff are engaged and wanting to work for and with you.
The Benefits of an Engaged Employee
Employee engagement has a very real impact on business success. For example:
An engaged employee is more likely to give more discretionary effort to their job and is more committed to the success of the company.
Businesses with an engaged workforce are 21% more likely to be successful in meeting their business goals.
According to data from Gallup, businesses that score within the top quarter percentile for employee engagement have 43 percent lower turnover than those that score in the bottom quarter percentile.
An unengaged employee costs the employer over $16,000 per year.
Most managers have a belief that their employees are engaged and “love” working for them, and you may be one of the lucky companies where this is true, But the statistics are scary showing that 85% of employees say they are not engaged in their current role.
This is why measuring and increasing employee engagement should be incorporated as part of the business strategy.
Measuring Employee Engagement
Measuring employee engagement can help leadership get the data, information, and insights they need to understand what is working, what is not working, and what they need to do to improve.
Annual Employee Engagement surveys are an effective way to measure your employees’ engagement with their role and your business, their morale and how much discretionary effort they put into their role. Results will allow you to continue what makes employees want to work for you, and adjust areas that may be leading to dissatisfaction and disengagement.
Pulse surveys are regular surveys to keep your finger on the pulse of what is really happening. They can help you identify what is driving engagement and disengagement and take the necessary steps to improve employee engagement.
Hold one-on-ones to allow employees to talk through their experience and share insights about what is working (and not working) for them. Use their insights and feedback to make improvements to how they feel about their role.
How to Improve Employee Engagement and Retention
While we may understand the importance of retaining our top talent - how do we do that?
Employee engagement is not just about the salary they earn or the fruit bowls in the staff lunchroom, it is not even about the flexibility that they may have in where, when and how they perform their work. Studies suggest that though these things are important, what most employees want is to:
be led by a great leader;
have their voices heard;
feel that they have control over their job;
have the best tools to be able to perform that role;
and to be valued.
Engaging employees is essential, especially when it comes to retention—and measuring engagement is the best strategy for getting the data you need to create a highly engaged workplace where employees want to stay in their jobs
In a time when it is difficult to attract the right talent as there are so many jobs for them to choose from, keeping our top talent - and more importantly, keeping them engaged and motivated - is important to the success of the company.
At MJSP Management Consulting, we work with savvy organisations wanting to improve their employee engagement and retention rates - contact us today to find out more.