Organizations face threats from their competitors and are constantly adjusting to address those risks. Employee engagement is an internal threat that must also have intentional focus. How many times have you been working with someone who is clearly unhappy in their role? They complain, they don’t get things done on time and they spread this negativity to others to form a group of disengaged employees. This results in more turnover, higher training costs and the loss of younger talent because they never connected with the company. It can become like a cancer that spreads across your organization which can lead to serious problems and affect your bottom line. Disengaged employees cost the US economy $350 billion dollars per year in lost productivity.
How can you find out how employee engagement is measuring up in your organization? Companies can measure employee engagement through surveys, focus groups or a combination of both. The goal is to get a baseline of where you are currently and then continue to measure against that baseline. Once you have the results, you need to take action to address the issues. Share the results and your action plans with the organization. Some things will need to be done at a senior leadership level while others could be addressed by groups in the company. Find ways to let the organization come together to focus on certain areas through task forces. Be open to their ideas and include the best options in the overall plan of action. They may come up with something that is going to be a real game changer.
What determines success is organization commitment, consistency, manager focus on the employees and communications that align with the actions. The worst thing that can happen is that you talk about what to do as a company, but then do nothing or very little to address the issues. This is not a short term fix that can be solved in a few months. It is a focus area that must be reviewed and evaluated on a regular basis. How will you address employee engagement within your company or group today?