Is Your Workforce Engaged? You Will Know It If You See It

Peter PsichogiosEmployee Engagement

Are you trying to assess whether you have an engaged workforce?  Do you have an employee engagement program in place, but are unsure of its effectiveness and whether it’s really driving ROI?

Close to 70% of workers are unengaged.  Unengaged employees are costing $480-$600 billion a year in lost productivity (Gallup 2018).  Having engaged employees can unleash amazing results for you and your organization. For example, find out more about how an employee engagement and recognition program attributed $100 million in correlated benefits at Caterpillar.

Here are some qualities that you may see reflected in your employees when they’re engaged:

Energy and Excitement

An engaged employee will show energy and excitement for their role, their projects and the company itself.  There’s an old saying, where attention goes energy flows! So, if your company is focusing its attention on engaging and recognizing your people, you are going to unleash their discretionary energy and excitement for their job.  In fact, recognition (and learning) has been determined to be one of the Key Drivers of employee engagement.  If you want your employees to feel excited and energized, start recognizing them for their contribution at every touch point.

Higher Productivity and Lower Absenteeism

Engaged employees want to be great, not just ordinary.  They want to contribute to your organization and be involved from day one.  When you engage, and reward your employees they are less likely to be absent, and only do so when they absolutely need it.  If they know that they are valued in your organization and they are being recognized and rewarded for their contribution, they are likely to be much more productive when they are at work because they will understand their purpose within the organization, and the importance of their role in the service chain, both with their colleagues and customers.

A Safer Workplace

Engaged employees are more focused and care more about the safety of themselves and their colleagues.  Also, when they know they are being recognized and rewarded for safe and appropriate behaviours, they will be more likely to focus their attention and energy on creating a safe work environment.  Recognizing safety through your Total Rewards program is a great way to reinforce these valued behaviours.  Depending on your industry, many organizations are supported by national regulatory bodies, such as OSHA.  A safety program supported by Total Rewards and recognition is a crucial piece to both protecting your employees and driving better business results.

Improved Customer Relationships / Higher Sales / Increased Profitability

Engaged employees are employees who are enabled to serve their colleagues and customers. That means, they have the skills and competencies to do their job efficiently and effectively.  They are also given opportunities to grow and learn, and are given feedback from their supervisors to continuously improve.  When they are enabled with this knowledge, they will be able to create exceptional customer service experiences, which results in higher sales and increased profitability for your company.  Learn more about how you can differentiate your organization with your customer service here.

An engaged workforce begins with recognizing and rewarding your employees for their contribution, at every touch point. If you want to know more about how to create an engaged workforce with a Total Rewards program, get in touch for a free demo of our solutions here.