The whole reason for Wotters’ existence is to help companies get on top of their employee engagement. If you’ve taken a look through our website, or any of our content, you’ll know we talk about it a lot. Like to the point where it might stop looking like a word, and more like something from outer space…
But what is employee engagement? Why is it important?
Let’s find out.
What is employee engagement?
To start with, I think it’s important to clarify that employee engagement isn’t the same as employee happiness. An employee could be happy enough relaxing in the fancy communal area with their friends, dual-wielding a ping pong paddle and their favourite Friday beer. But they might not go back to their desk wanting to work at their best. They might be content with taking home a pay check and doing as little as possible to make that happen.
“When we talk about employee engagement here, we’re talking more about the emotional connection to a company. It’s about feeling aligned to your companies’ goals, knowing that you’re trusted, and what you do has a purpose.”
Companies that work towards high engagement levels will have employees that actually want to go to work, and employees who’ll go the extra mile for their company and their colleagues.
Having employees who actually want to go to work is a benefit itself of course, but why else should you prioritise employee engagement?
Increased Profits
It goes without saying that you’ll probably put more effort into something that you enjoy. And work is no different. Staff who feel immersed and engaged in their work will be happier, and more productive, 22% more productive might I add.
How could an increase in productivity affect your sales team? Or your customer service agents? It’ll probably look something like an increase in customer acquisition, and an increase in retention.
Either way, it’s good for your bottomline.
Reduced Turnover
It’s pretty simple when you think about it really.
You go to work, to a place where you feel a sense of purpose, where you can grow and develop. AND, you get rewarded nicely for your efforts. That sounds pretty good right? Why would you want to leave that?
Of course high engagement levels won’t put an end to your employees departing. But it can have a huge impact on retention levels nonetheless. High-turnover companies can benefit from a reduction of up to 25%, whereas low-turnover companies can see up to a staggering 65% drop when staff are engaged. That’s massive.
The average cost of replacing staff in the UK is estimated to cost £12,000 (potentially 10’s of thousands more if you’re working with external recruiters), the savings from investing in employee engagement quickly add up.
Reduced Absenteeism
Sick days cost the UK economy multiple billions of pounds every year.
It could be legitimate sick days, it could be the result of too many beers the night before. It’s anyone’s guess… (Probably a mixture of both). Either way, this number is very significant.
There’s a couple of factors that we can consider here. One is simple. If you have a disengaged employee, they probably just won’t care as much as their engaged counterparts. It won’t take as much to cash in a sick day. After all, sick days = extra holiday right?
The other is more complex. In a disengaged organisation, you see a few things. One being a breakdown of communication through the business. If staff are assigned heavy workloads, aren’t able to take time off when they need, and don’t have the resources to cope with the extra stress, what choice do they have?
Increased Loyalty
Everyone loves a bit of free marketing. And your employees can be a great source of it. Be it down the pub with some friends, or talking with customers, an engaged employee will be a stellar representative of your company. If your employees are proud to work for you, then it’ll shine through when they talk about work-life in day to day conversations.
Conclusion
So what is employee engagement? It’s an incredibly powerful indicator of business success, and hopefully I’ve illustrated just how large the benefits can be.
15% of employees are actively engaged at work, which means that there’s 85% more out there that could benefit from a change. Make sure that your staff fall in the former.
So have a think about your business and how your staff are really feeling. It might be worthwhile upping your employee engagement game. Wotter gives you the tools to make sure that your investment doesn’t go to waste.
You can get in touch with us at hello@wotter.group or on 01243 958710.
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