There’s nothing quite like a solid statistic to convey a message and when you’re dealing with something that feels hard to measure, such as employee engagement, it can be helpful to see some data.
With that in mind we thought it was time to look at a few cold, hard facts and see how you can use them to increase employee engagement within your own organization.
But what exactly is employee engagement?
Employee engagement is the level of commitment a person has towards their work and their company. It’s an emotion-led feeling and it governs how willing someone is to consistently give it their all in the workplace.
Low engagement, or disengagement, manifests itself as doing the bare minimum, while someone who is highly engaged with their work will go the extra mile to get the job done, delight clients or think of new ideas.
The problem is, it’s not as easy as placing your employees into two categories: engaged and disengaged as the majority of people will fall somewhere between the two. Yes, you may have staff who are completely checked out and you may have one or two superstars, but most people will lie somewhere on the scale between all or nothing.
And if you have a number of employees who are on the slippery slope to disengagement, it’s time to take action and boost those engagement levels!
Let’s get into it.
6 Must know employee engagement statistics
You’re going to need to be able to gauge the levels of engagement throughout your business and to do that we need a yardstick.
How engaged are the majority of employees?
1. Only 15% of Americans say they feel engaged at work
Rather a shocking statistic to start. According to their State of the Global Workplace poll, Gallup found that a massive 85% of employees are not engaged in the workplace.
This would indicate that, unless you’re very lucky, you need to look at some ways to re-engage with your workforce.
2. 8 of 10 HR executives say their organization has a formal engagement program
But - and here’s the but - these execs are generally working for organizations that have 2000+ employees.
And when you consider that 99% of all enterprises in the US employ fewer than 500 people, you’re left with an awful lot of businesses who don’t have any kind of engagement or recognition program in place.
If your company is lacking in the engagement strategy department, it’s time to start thinking about some ways you can engage with employees to increase productivity and positivity in your workplace.
3. Companies that ask employees for feedback have a 14.9% lower turnover rate
When a company asks its employees for feedback the leaders are demonstrating that they care about their employees’ views and concerns.
This in turn leads to better engagement and deeper employee loyalty.
Overall, organizations who measure engagement and ask for feedback have higher rates of engagement and lower retention rates.
There are a number of ways to collect employee feedback - but do make sure that you act upon it when it’s viable to do so.
4. Great managers can increase productivity by 50%
Who you work for - as in the manager, not the company - can have a huge effect on employee engagement and productivity. One study found that if an employee moves from working for an average manager to a higher quality manager, their productivity could increase by as much as 50%.
And it goes without saying that a productive employee who enjoys working for someone who treats them with respect is going to be a far more engaged employee.
Good managers recognize and appreciate their employees. They support them and mentor them, and show compassion when it is needed.
5. 37% of employees say they would be more engaged if they received recognition
Giving recognition for a job well done is imperative if you want your employees to be engaged. Ignoring or overlooking achievements or hard work is, on the other hand, utterly demotivating
Consider these additional numbers too:
- 80% of employees would work harder if they felt they were appreciated more
- A solid employee recognition program will reduce turnover rates by 31%
- Employees who receive recognition are nearly 6X more likely to stay at their job
What does this mean? It means if you don’t have an employee recognition strategy in place, you need to seriously rethink that.
6. 48% of employees report feeling burnt out at work
Research by Microsoft suggests that almost half of all employees are feeling burnt out. And burn out leads to a lack of enthusiasm and motivation for work.
In addition to this lack of engagement (and the lack, therefore of productivity) the other issue with burn out is that employees are more likely to need to take time off due to stress or illness.
Knowing how to spot the signs of burnout and knowing how to support employees who are suffering is crucial if you want to ensure your people can turn up and be their best selves at work each day.
Help your employees to embrace a better work-life balance and not only will they be thanking you but your bottom line will be too.
Why is employee engagement so important?
It may seem obvious that employees who are engaged are more committed to, and positive about, their work. And that the knock on effect of that will be a team of people who are more efficient and productive.
What’s not so obvious is how to ensure that all of your employees reach this state of being highly engaged.
If you’re dealing with a workforce that is overwhelmingly actively disengaged, you need to take urgent action to swing the pendulum back the other way.
Only by understanding the levels of engagement in your organization can you begin to improve upon it and that means running employee polls or surveys, asking for feedback, conducting stay interviews - and exit interviews.
You need to find out where your peoples’ heads are at and then develop employee engagement (and retention and recognition) strategies that will propel you towards a happier, healthier and more profitable workplace.
Eve Church
I'm a UK-based content writer here at Hezum. I've an interest in all things HR and company culture.
United Kingdom
