Employee Engagement – The key to a committed workforce

85% of employees worldwide describe themselves as “not engaged”. In addition, the number of “actively disengaged” employees in the United States is 13%.

These are frightening figures.

“Engaged” employees is defined here as people who are highly involved in their work and are committed to their workplace and employer. If an employee has a very bad work experience and passes on his dissatisfaction to his colleagues, one speaks of “actively disengaged”. Gallup’s annual “State of the Global Workplace“ study came to these findings, among others.

What is Employee Engagement anyway?

In general, Employee Engagement describes the degree to which employees identify with their company and how much commitment they show at work. Motivated and committed employees are the ones who generate new ideas and also have enough heart and soul to implement them for their company. People who fight loyally and on their own responsibility for their employer are priceless.

Those who manage to keep employee commitment high as an employer increase their chances of success considerably and can reduce their costs. According to Gallup, the economic damage caused by poor human resources management in Germany alone amounts to up to 122 billion euros per year.

But how do you manage to get a committed workforce?

Real commitment usually comes about when employees are satisfied at their workplace. The two concepts of Employee Experience and Employee Engagement are therefore closely linked. An improved Employee Experience in everyday work makes for more satisfied employees. They have a closer relationship with the company and become more involved.
The goal of optimizing the Employee Experience is not only helpful for the employees, but also promotes the performance and success of the company through increased commitment. This is because companies that invest in the Employee Experience have on average a 4x higher profit per employee. Jacob Morgan comes to this conclusion in his book “The Employee Experience Advantage

Employee Engagement Score

Employee Engagement can be measured and compared using the Employee Engagement Score, also known as an index. This score is usually calculated from the evaluations of regular surveys. Gallup gives an example of such a survey. There, the employees are asked 12 questions regarding satisfaction and commitment, which can be rated with a score between 1 and 5 depending on their agreement.

In addition to ready-made surveys, companies can also call upon specialized service providers in this field.
In order to make the Engagement Score even more meaningful, additional key figures can support the results of the surveys. Absences, terminations and customer satisfaction are all indicators of employee experience and commitment and should be included in the evaluation. But also the personal conversation with the employee and the atmosphere in the office should not be neglected.

The key for a committed workforce

We know that Employee Engagement, well-being, satisfaction and experience are closely linked. As a company it is not easy to achieve improvements in all areas, but it is extremely important to work more effectively and efficiently.

In order to achieve its full potential, Employee Engagement should become one of the central aspects of the company’s strategy.

Therefore it is important to establish a mutual feedback culture. Constructive criticism must be able to be expressed and implemented by both employees and employers.

In order to keep people motivated and committed to their tasks, they should not be too easy or too demanding. The degree of difficulty should be only slightly above the respective skills. If the task is too easy, one quickly loses interest and if it is clearly too difficult, one gives up.

In addition, digital tools are a very good way to increase the Employee Experience and thus the commitment with little time. Various software companies offer products for improved communication within and between departments, for simplified feedback possibilities via dedicated platforms or for the inclusion of older or slightly impaired employees. The latter can be implemented with the help of special tools such as the “Employee Experience Toolkit” from abilitools.

Committed employees are the key to success

More and more companies invest a lot of time and money to provide their employees with better working conditions and in all cases are rewarded with increased productivity, increased profit, decreased absenteeism and an improved reputation. Don’t be a trailblazer and use the potential that lies within your staff. With the right applications and tools, you can achieve a lot with little effort. Take the opportunity now to upgrade your employee experience and increase commitment.