7 Key Employee Engagement Stats Proving Why It Should Be Your #1 Priority

As a famous saying goes, “An army marches on its stomach”, a well-fed army is more likely to perform well. The same applies to an organization’s workforce, too. Your business can only advance if you look after your employees and prioritize employee engagement strategies.

For an organisation, its employees are as important as its customers. Ensuring that they are engaged at work ensures that the effect is passed on to the customers, too, and even they are happy.

Here are some fascinating statistics to prove the importance of employee engagement in the workplace and its impact on empowering employees to stay more connected to their work.

Employee Engagement Stats

1. Organisations with high employee engagement outperform those with low employee engagement by 202%

According to a survey by Gallup, business units which had a higher rate of engagement not only outperformed less engaged units but also experienced an additional decrease in absenteeism, turnover and quality defects.

This signifies the importance of employee engagement on productivity levels. Employee engagement is not something that can be achieved overnight, but more of a continuous process. It involves gathering creative ways to help employees maintain a connection with their work, for the management to actively listen to their feedback and gain more insight.

There are plenty of ways for HR teams to solicit employee feedback – engagement surveys, pulse surveys or even just a basic pen-and-paper suggestion box. However, always remember that the best way to engage employees is to give them a platform to voice their opinions and react to the management’s suggestions. After all, what is the point of seeking feedback from the employees without a buy-in from the leadership on making effective changes using the insights?

2. 83% of employees are engaged in their first year, but only 74% are engaged after 3-5 years

Engagement is the highest among the new hires but decreases gradually through their tenure. The ‘initial honeymoon period’ reflects the appeal of a new role and the associated enthusiasm and participation. However, with time, this tends to wither away with employees experiencing a burnout.

The longer employees work for a company, the more are the changes they encounter at the personal and structural level. These changes eventually affect their engagement level. Therefore, it’s essential to recognize and adopt improvement measures at all levels to ensure that the employees continue to feel invested and empowered.

An excellent way to involve older employees in the employee engagement process is to appoint them as mentors or coaches for newer employees. The former employees have a wealth of experience, skills and knowledge which can be tapped and used to get them more engaged. Eventually, the mentoring process will be a win-win for all the stakeholders involved – the employee who seeks the mentor, the mentor who gets involved in knowledge sharing and the organisations which identify the mentoring pair.

3. 74% of the employees believe that leadership is the most significant influence on engagement

More than anything else, leadership and its ideals have the biggest impact on employee engagement. If the staff members have low trust in leaders or weak relationships with managers, the chances are high that it would directly translate to them being disengaged.

Despite this, only two-fifths of the staff believes that leaders consider employee engagement as critical. Using anonymous staff surveys and seeking feedback from the employee to gauge the effectiveness of the leaders will be useful in these cases.

Timely identification of a toxic manager and execution of subsequent steps to get him out of the system is of utmost importance. A good manager should also be a good leader who prioritizes and empathizes with the team and, thus, helps in ensuring greater employee engagement.

4. Employee Burnout is the Largest Threat to Employee Engagement, Specifically Causing Up to 50% of Annual Workforce Turnover

A 2017 study conducted by Future Workplace found that employee burnout is currently the most substantial threat to employee engagement. This study found that 95 per cent of human resource leaders admit that employee burnout is sabotaging workforce retention; still, there is no apparent solution on the horizon.

One of the biggest reasons for burnout is often an overload of work that leads to a lack of control. A simple solution for this issue can be empowering the employees with 20% of their weekly work time to dedicate to the projects which inspire them. Google has adopted this practice, and it is this 20% time which has led to the creation of several innovative products like Google News, AdSense and more.

5. Disengaged Employees Cost Organisations Between $450 and $550 Billion Annually

Not only can disengaged employees dispel negativity in the workplace, but they can also cause a company to lose money. The cost of low engagement is not limited to turnover and recruitment, but involves more losses with decreased productivity and damaged workplace culture.

Improving your employee alignment with a positive work culture will keep disengaged employees at bay. A good way to enhance engagement levels is by offering flexible options in work schedules. There are plenty of ways to support flexibility in the workplace.

Allowing employees to work from home when needed, adopting flexible schedules, increasing the amount of personal time for employees and providing workplace amenities, like gaming rooms, lounge, break areas, cafe facilities etc., will go a long way to keep your employees motivated.

6. Highly Engaged Employees are 87% Less Likely to Leave Their Companies Than Their Less Engaged Counterparts

Retaining good employees is vital for organsational success. Engaged employees are happier and are less likely to leave, for they are committed and invested in working towards the success of the company. Also, this will help companies leverage the domino-effect of a happy workplace and attract more qualified people.

Encourage professional development by providing the employees with learning and training opportunities to expand their skills and knowledge further. This will show that you care for and value your employees and, in turn, will foster you greater engagement.

Also, recognize your employee’s efforts by acknowledging their contribution. Since employee recognition plays a vital role in boosting their engagement levels, one of the easiest ways to bring it to practice is by publicly sharing accolades or praises while recognizing the efforts of a team or an individual.

7. Companies with Engaged Employees Have Five Times Higher Shareholder Returns

A critical material effect of employee engagement is a direct impact on the bottom line of the company. While you probably care for your employees’ happiness, it is also essential to present precise figures to your stakeholders or the folks in the C-Suite while explaining the value of employee engagement initiatives. They will be impressed to hear the numbers.

Employee engagement leads to the employee using their discretionary efforts. As a result, it drives the engagement-profit chain. This is because employees are more concerned, productive, give better service and are more loyal. All of this drives sales and profits higher and eventually increases the stock prices.

Investing in your employees is like sowing a seed and continuously reaping its benefits with an increase in employee performance, overall productivity and, ultimately, profits. At the same time, ensure to identify the weeds and pests and root out the anomalies proactively to yield high productivity and provide a high-quality workplace that values its people.