Creating a positive culture in the workplace is key to ensuring business success. Employees must feel motivated, recognised and engaged at work. When employees are content, they are more likely to be productive, healthy, creative and proactive in contributing to your business objectives. In this blog, we focus on a key business objective - maximising financial performance.
A global study carried out by Willis-Towers-Watson (formerly Towers Perrin-ISR*) compared the financial performance of organisations with a more engaged workforce to their peers with a less engaged workforce over a period of 12 months. The data comprised of 664,000 employees from 50 companies of all sizes around the world, representing a range of different industries. Engagement was measured alongside more traditional business performance measures such as operating income, net income and earnings per share. Their findings included the following:
- Those companies with a highly engaged workforce improved operating income by 19.2 percent over a period of 12 months, whilst those companies with low engagement scores saw operating income decline by 32.7 percent over the same period.
- Over a 12-month period, those companies with high engagement scores demonstrated a 13.7 percent improvement in net income growth whilst those with low engagement saw net income growth decline by 3.8 percent.
The message to your business could not be clearer. If you want to improve organisational performance, then raise your employee’s level of engagement. This is even more important given the current pressures of Covid-19.
At Neon, we can engage your employees by making them feel valued, involved, developed and inspired. With a performance improvement solution using carefully created analytics specific to your business, we can pinpoint areas where an individual may not be engaging with your brand. The following are often topics we look at when talking about engagement:
Employees who feel appreciated and whose effort is acknowledged are more likely to remain loyal to your company. Therefore, one of your most important responsibilities is letting your staff know how important they are to your success. There are many different ways of showing your employees how much they mean to your company; whether it’s as simple as celebrating their work anniversaries, investing in development (learning) or with a platform to create a positive working culture.
At Neon we have helped our clients make their teams feel valued and appreciated through many different means. From the small things like care packages and tech bundles during lockdowns, to longer term solutions that are dedicated to constantly reinforce e-learning, career development and rewards. We always ensure we find a way to make your employees feel valued no matter what your brief or budget.
Involve your staff in decision-making and planning. This is especially important for decisions that directly relate to their jobs. Show them that their feedback matters and give them a voice. It is crucial to communicate with your employees, not just every now and then - ALL the time!
When we look at the importance of communication in engagement, it is about ensuring visibility of important topics. Of course, company updates, newsletters and meetings are essential for keeping your employees up to date. However, being part of an ongoing and open process of communication means that your employees feel they really are helping to forge the future of the business. They are part of it and involved in the creation of it. Our solutions ensure there is an effective communication channel available to your network 24/7.
Growing and developing is a natural human drive. Therefore, development is a powerful tool to engage your employees. It’s all about investing in someone’s long-term growth which will also help with reducing recruitment costs. High turnover rates in staff can be linked to a lack of personal development and opportunities.
Companies searching for high levels of engagement need to invest in developing their staff. Furthermore, the development of your managers can lead to more positive relationships with peers and subordinates which has an effect on the working atmosphere and overall happiness in the workplace. Neon can provide visibility of the outcomes of learning, which is key to ensuring long-term engagement.
Employees are inspired by knowing that their hard work makes a difference beyond profitability. They want leaders who create a wider reaching impact, that extends into the community and influences social causes. Allow your staff to be part of the innovation-based projects in your organisation by letting them get their hands dirty. When given the right tools and resources, the best employees will instinctively challenge themselves to be more innovative in their work – and will perform better.
What’s next? Ask yourself, how engaged are your employees at work? Perhaps you are unsure or have very little visibility of this. We can provide you with the answers and the tools to unlock your business challenges around engagement.
This is a particularly difficult time and we would be delighted to help. A 30 minute chat could be the start of something great for you!
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