What has the engagement level of my employees got to do with the experience we deliver to our customers, or my bottom line?
Put simply unengaged employees can’t create engaged and loyal customers – so if you want the benefits that improving your customer experience can bring to your business – you first have to engage your employees.
In summary Higher Engagement = Higher Profitability
And before you go thinking engagement is all fluffy, touchy feely stuff – it isn’t – it is completely about your bottom-line – now and in the future. Once you know what type of culture you want and have started the process of putting and keeping it in place, it is now time to get your employees to buy into it – on an ongoing basis.
“To win in the marketplace you must first win in the workplace” – Doug Conant
Employee engagement is important because:
- Higher Engagement = Higher Profitability
- Engaged employees are an asset, unengaged employees are a liability, and
- The way your employees feel is the way your business and customers will feel.
“Customers will never love a company until the employees love it first” – Simon Sinek
As a business owner, this may be the last topic on your mind. You are focused on attracting and retaining customers, meeting deadlines, keeping up with the paperwork and simply making ends meet. In today’s business environment you have to achieve more, react quicker, continually improve amongst a multitude of other things, and all without increasing costs! The top businesses have realised that to achieve this they need more than just strong cultures and brands, the latest machinery, new products or new markets.
They realise that to succeed they also need to focus heavily on their employees and in particular their engagement levels, because employee engagement:
- Has a direct impact on their bottom-line and growth,
- Creates employees who are more productive, profitable,customer-focused, safer, and less likely to leave,
- Is a powerful source of competitive advantage,
- Pays off big time in the long term.
Due to the above top businesses realise that engagement is more than a HR initiative or responsibility, and that along with Culture and Branding, Employee Engagement is also a core strategic business foundation. These top businesses also realise that aligning employee engagement strategies with their business goals will help them win in the marketplace.
Do you realise that employee engagement is the key driver in nearly every key “internal” KPI measured by businesses – for example:
| Measure | Main base figure used | Comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Productivity | Chargeable labour hours | Employees actions / inactions |
| Safety | Accidents / Employee hours | Employees actions / inactions |
| Quality | Rework hours / units | Employees actions / inactions |
| Cost to Produce | Materials & labour units used | Employees actions / inactions |
Scary fact: – Most owners, managers and leaders believe that more than 60% of their employees are engaged, but results have shown that in reality the figure is closer to 20%! – this is a huge disparity but it is also a huge opportunity for you, the smart business owner, who wants to improve results and get a jump on their competitors.
“Engaging the hearts, minds, and hands of talent is the most sustainable source of competitive advantage” – Greg Harris,Quantam Workplace
Show me the money …the proof it works!
If you are one of the businesses who don’t believe employee engagement has any real impact on your bottom line, have a look at the following statistics that are a summary of numerous worldwide survey’s. Hopefully they will make you re think the importance of employee engagement.
Businesses with highly engaged employee enjoy the following benefits / advantages over businesses with lesser engaged employees:
| Measure | Advantage |
|---|---|
| Sales revenue | 2.5 times higher |
| Revenue per employee | 26% higher |
| Retention | 83% higher |
| Ability to attract employee | 56% higher |
| Absenteeism | 37% lower |
| Employee turnover | 25% – 65% lower |
| Shrinkage (aka thief) | 28% less |
| Safety incidents | 48% fewer |
| Quality incidents (defects) | 41% fewer |
| Customer satisfaction metrics | 10% higher |
| Productivity | 21 – 43% higher |
| Likelihood of success | 70% higher |
Engaged employees also bring other benefits to your business as they are:
- More supportive of change and improvement initiatives
- Exceed expectations in Performance Reviews
- Higher voluntary input and effort
- More belief in the businesses culture and values
- More innovative
- Happier work place overall
Even if you could achieve just 25 – 50% of the above, imagine what it would do to your results !!
Maybe factor some of the above into your current results and see the differences or increases that could be made?
Higher Engagement = Higher Profitability
It’s a proven fact – The higher the level of engagement, the higher the performance of the business. The research is not inconclusive, not limited to one country or industry, and not contained to a few hundred people—it’s overwhelming. Businesses with more engaged employees are more profitable, more productive, more innovative, and more successful than their competition and other businesses generally. In fact, businesses with engaged employees outperform those without by up to 202%! because the more engaged your employees are the more efficient and productive they become, lowering operating costs and increasing the profit margin. They also stay longer, work harder, work more creatively, and find ways to go the extra mile and bring you more great employees.
Loyal, passionate employees bring a company as much benefit as loyal, passionate customers.
So clearly, it is better for you, for your employees, for your customers, and for your bottom line to get serious about creating a culture your employees love.
“No company, small or large, can win over the long run without energized employees who believe in the mission and understand how to achieve it” – Jack Welch, former CEO General Electric
Can you afford not pay attention to the Power of Engagement?
Contact us to learn how to create your employee engagement culture by design not by default.