Employee Engagement

Have you ever lost your phone and felt that you lost a part of yourself? Tuesday I lost my phone and I never knew how much I depended on it until I lost it. That whole “never knew what you had until you’ve lost it” adage. I am extremely dependent on my phone as are most people that I felt I couldn’t go on with my day without a phone.

I frantically searched every place I had encountered in the time I had my phone until the time I realized it was gone. It was nowhere to be found. I had the sinking realization that it was most likely in the cab I had taken for less than 3 minutes while downtown. Did I remember the cab number or even the cab company? Of course not. Every cab company I called hadn’t had a phone matching my description show up so off to the phone store I went to purchase a new phone. Grrr!

Losing a really valuable employee is analogous to losing your really valuable cell phone. All the resources and contacts and knowledge saved on that phone are now lost and will never be retrieved. Workers changing jobs frequently and downsizing are regular occurrences in the workforce today. Companies want to keep the best talent and get the most productivity out of this talent. The knowledge and resources key employees possess make a company succeed. These knowledge and resources are lost when that employee leaves.

The question is: How do companies keep the employees with the knowledge and resources on which the company depends from leaving?

Increasing employee engagement has been shown to increase loyalty and productivity and decrease turnover and absenteeism. Every company wants to increase productivity and decrease turnover. These two concepts combined equals more money coming into the company and less going out.
Several elements are involved in increasing employee engagement. They are as follows:
·         Employee autonomy
·         Employee goals linked to organizational goals
·         The cognitive level of the job
·         Availability of employee development
·         Team members

All of the above can greatly impact employee engagement which then impacts company profits. The best way to start increasing employee engagement is to survey employee attitudes and then make changes according to the results of the survey. The elements of employee engagement will depend on the culture of your company.

Employee engagement can be a very beneficial change to make to any organization. The United States has an increasing number of individuals with greater than a high school education. This increase in cognitive skills lends to a workforce invested in autonomy and employee engagement. Meeting the needs of employees is becoming a highly sought after goal of organizations. Is your organization ready for the challenge?