Engaged workers help reduce turnover, save money, and preserve culture

To date, we’ve used the S.H.A.P.E. people management tool to assess your talent, craft a realistic succession plan, and connect that plan to your company mission and values.  However, for all of your hard work to pay off, it’s critical to shift your focus from planning to connecting.  True business success is heavily dependent on how you PURSUE employee engagement.

A 2018 Gallup poll showed that the percentage of engaged U.S. workers had increased to 34%.  While improvement on this metric is notable, it’s also alarming.  It means that the other 66% of workers aren’t engaged.  Even more worrisome, an estimated 13% are actively disengaged, meaning they’re miserable at work.

Disengaged employees can be a major headache for your organization.  They can exhaust HR resources, ruin customer relationships, and torpedo your retention rate.  Not to mention, turnover is expensive – on average, it costs about one-third of an employee’s annual earnings to recruit and onboard their replacement. 

Engaged employees, on the other hand, produce three times the output of their disengaged peers, and each engaged individual can boost company profits by $2400.  So, clearly, an engaged team can be a boon to your business.  But what exactly does an engaged employee look like and what motivates them?

Understanding engaged employees

In short, engaged employees are those who feel a sense of deep connection to their work and honor their responsibility to the greater organization.  These employees tend to share a few common traits:

• They give feedback about how to improve the organization and welcome similar feedback about their own performance.
• They seek out growth opportunities instead of waiting.
• The people around them – their peers, clients, and business partners – find them inspiring.
• They understand and feel passionate about the company mission.
• They bring in other qualified individuals.

Keeping them on staff requires companies to focus on three categories – executive leadership, purpose, and internal relationships.  Regarding executive leadership, engaged employees are looking for strong, transparent management from the top down.  A recent Deloitte survey found that 62% of employees who planned to stay at their current company expressed high levels of trust in leadership.  

Second, engaged employees aren’t just cogs in the machine.  They need their work to connect to a higher purpose.  In fact, 96% of working Americans agree that they’d be happier at work if they could connect their jobs to their personal interests.

And lastly, engaged workers aren’t in the fight alone.  An SHRM survey showed that 2 out of 5 employees said their relationships with coworkers were “very important” to their job satisfaction.  

Contrary to what many leaders may believe, engaged employees aren’t just natural self-starters or uniquely talented individuals.  They may be driven, but it takes a precise mix of several factors to protect their environment and motivate them.  There isn’t an easy answer about how to do this for your team, but there are some best practices that you can adapt for strong results.

Increasing employee engagement in your company

Before you can tackle employee engagement, you need to understand more about it.  You can gather this data through companywide surveys or through SWOOP assessments, which are self-guided questionnaires for each employee that take them through their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, obstacles, and passions.  SWOOP assessments are similar to SWAT assessments, except they’re focused on the worker instead of the overall business.

Once you’ve gauged the current climate, you can start taking steps toward better engagement:

• Focus on total rewards packages for employees (e.g., recognition, benefits, perks, etc.) and not just compensation.
• Tailor your engagement and retention strategies to your culture.  For example, think about allowing each employee to choose their ideal perk instead of giving everyone the same gift.  
• Design your engagement program the same way you’d design a customer program – get their feedback, make it easily accessible, and keep it fun.
• Ensure all leaders have the right tools and knowledge to drive engagement.
• Keep the focus on learning and development, as continued education helps prepare workers for new opportunities and promotions.
• Think about talent sourcing in innovative ways.  For instance, a referral program may be a great way to excite the team about filling open roles.
• Always connect assignments and projects to the company mission.
• Send out constant corporate communication to keep your team in the know.  The more informed they are, the more welcome they’ll feel.

Additionally, give individuals the chance to speak up, voice their concerns, and contribute their ideas.  Connect them with mentors, especially those who are marginalized or underrepresented.  And find dynamic ways to thank team members for a job well done (e.g., premium incentives, extra time off, etc.).

Also, as we all continue to navigate the COVID era, think about the new ways you need to support employees who are working from home. These team members may be juggling work with conducting virtual learning for their children and possibly attending school themselves.  To stay connected and on the right track to success, they need flexibility, understanding, and new tools, like the following SIMPLE tool:

SET the big picture goals you want to achieve and by when. 

IDENTIFY the “win” you want and what success looks like for you. 

MAKE an action plan for your daily “must win”, with steps you will take to reach your goals. 

PRACTICE monitoring your progress on a daily basis. 

LEARN to celebrate your victories. 

ENJOY the journey and know it’s okay to rest before you start again.

And finally, for those unlucky few that you aren’t able to retain, collect their insights during exit interviews.  Get the unvarnished truth about what you could do better and use that information to inform your future engagement efforts.

Conclusion

A great succession plan means nothing if you don’t understand what motivates and excites your team.  By pursuing employee engagement, you can ensure that your entire staff is invested in the company’s success.  When the time comes to put your plan in motion, you can guarantee that not only will you have the talent to fill every role but they’ll be glad to do so.