This week we will be continuing our blog series on “5 Effective Employee Retention Strategies.” A very important strategy that is essential in any business is building employee engagement. Company leaders can keep their employees engaged in a variety of ways, including providing recognition for their efforts, taking employee feedback into account, facilitating a healthy work environment, and maintaining good relationships between managers and their teams.
According to Gallup’s State of the Workplace Report, 79% of employees are not engaged at work. This is a very large number, considering the effects that unengaged employees have on productivity, workplace environment, and staff retention. Not only will taking action to improve employee engagement reduce the costs of loss of productivity, but it will also reduce employee turnover.
Impact on Retention
Considering how many employees currently feel unengaged at their jobs, it is more crucial than ever for company leaders to look into the current state of employee engagement in their businesses. It is clear that employees that are unengaged or actively disengaged are less likely to want to stay working at their current company. The decrease in productivity is costly for a business, but replacing an employee is even more so. Employees that are engaged at work are 87% less likely to quit their job, supporting the fact that building employee engagement increases retention. Actively measuring employee engagement will require consistent efforts from company leadership, but these efforts will pay off in retaining talented employees.
Giving Employees a Voice
One important thing that can decrease employee engagement significantly is failing to give employees a voice in the workplace. In other words, many companies do not consider feedback given by employees, which can make employees feel unengaged with their work and company culture. Employees want to be able to influence the direction of the organizations that they are a part of, and leadership that takes that feedback into account shows that they respect their employees’ thoughts and opinions. Having a cooperative team provides different perspectives and ideas, but unfortunately 22% of employees feel disconnected from their company’s purpose. It is important to provide employees with opportunities to be more involved and connected with the company’s that they work for in order to increase the likelihood of them wanting to remain in their current position.
How to Measure Employee Engagement
There are several different ways that company leaders can actively measure employee engagement in their organizations. Doing so is a great way to be sure that employees feel involved and connected to their work and the company, which gives them plenty of reason to want to stay. A few metrics to monitor as a company leader are recognition, happiness, relationships, personal growth, satisfaction, and wellness. These are not the only aspects that are important to be aware of, but they are certainly very significant ones. Regularly measuring these metrics is most commonly done with engagement surveys that are filled out by employees. There are two main types of surveys that can be used to measure engagement:
Annual surveys are used to gather high-level insights that guide more broad strategies for the business and the year ahead. However, employees most likely will not remember specific points during the year where they felt engaged or not, so it is difficult to come to conclusions on the accuracy of employee engagement throughout the year.
Pulse surveys are shorter and more frequent surveys that can better measure employee engagement in real time. Asking employees a few questions about the engagement metrics is a great way to root out any issues that leadership might not otherwise notice.
Other than surveys, engagement can be measured through one-on-one meetings with team members. Regularly having private conversations with employees is a simple but effective way to measure how engaged they are in their environment. For employees that have already decided to move on from the company, utilizing exit interviews is a useful tool to figure out what the business could have done better to improve engagement to ensure that it is less likely to happen again in the future.
Building employee engagement is one of the most important strategies to increase employee retention in a company. Taking steps to measure how engaged employees are in your company is crucial, but it is especially important to be sure to take action after seeing the results. It is proven that individuals that are not engaged in their work will search elsewhere for a business that will provide them with what they are looking for. Having a voice in their company will provide opportunities for employees to flourish and feel like they are truly a part of their organization, which only decreases the possibility of turnover.
Sedna Consulting Group connects candidates with great companies that seek the best talent for their roles and strive to engage them with their business. We are happy to assist any individuals who wish to have a voice in the company that they work for. Send us a message on LinkedIn or Instagram or visit our contact page to get started on your journey with us.
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