Employee Engagement: What It is and Why It’s So Vital for Your Organisation

30th May 2023 By Adosphere

It is very important to keep the employees engaged and driven by applying technology and enhancing communication.One of the most useful platforms that help enhance communication is Workplace by Meta. With its incredible features like Live Video, Safety Centre etc. it has enriched the scale and efficiency of communication and enhanced employee engagement.Another such platform is Adosphere. With its great features and scale, the platform has the power to enhance digital communication. With the partnership between Adosphere and Workplace, the world of business has achieved a new and enhanced platform for increasing employee engagement in the organisation.Learn about key drivers of employee engagement and how to spot when employees aren’t engaged at work.You can rely on your team. After all, they check-in every day. But are they just going through the motions? Or are they emotionally and mentally invested in what they’re doing and using their talents to the full?While engaging employees is crucial to business success, it’s also a challenge, especially in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic where work has been interrupted, and when more people are working remotely. We take a closer look at engagement, why it matters, and how to get it.You can rely on your team. After all, they check-in every day. But are they just going through the motions? Or are they emotionally and mentally invested in what they’re doing and using their talents to the full?While engaging employees is crucial to business success, it’s also a challenge, especially in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic where work has been interrupted, and when more people are working remotely. We take a closer look at engagement, why it matters, and how to get it.Untangle work with workplace

From informing everyone about the return to the office to adopting a hybrid way of working, Workplace makes work more simple.

What is employee engagement?

For a phrase we hear so often, the meaning of employee engagement is surprisingly hard to pin down. Is it happiness? Willingness to go the extra mile? Loyalty? Commitment? Passion? Turns out, it’s a mix of all these, plus a bit more.HR experts Sage People talk about worker engagement in terms of ‘going beyond the basics’ and ‘making a connection at a deeper level.’ Gallup defines engaged employees as ‘those involved in, enthusiastic about, and committed to their work and workplace.’ Whereas the CIPD focuses on relationships, calling it ‘a combination of commitment to the organisation and its values and a willingness to help colleagues.’ What employee engagement isn’t, is simply turning up every day and getting on with the work. It’s about a much deeper connection with a job, the people you work with, and the organisation itself. It’s not always easy to measure employee engagement - or to achieve it. Only 35% of US workers felt engaged in 2019, according to Gallup. And that’s a 19-year high.

Is employee engagement the same as employee satisfaction?

While there’s some evidence that job satisfaction can contribute to engagement, it’s not always the case. When the Society for Human Resource Management looked at satisfaction and worker engagement, it found that while 88% of people questioned were satisfied, they were only moderately engaged.So employee satisfaction and engagement aren’t the same. Think about satisfaction as being content: a satisfied person is comfortable with what they do, and feels able to do it. They’re reasonably happy with their pay and working conditions. Things are OK. But they’re not challenged or motivated or invested. They’re putting in the hours, but aren't engaged with their work, the people around them, or the organisation. And this affects their performance. While they may be content, they won’t necessarily have the motivation to perform any better than employees who aren’t satisfied. This can impact productivity and innovation.If there's no definite link between satisfaction and engagement, what about happiness? Some commentators argue that, like being satisfied with your work, happiness doesn’t necessarily make you engaged. On the flip side, you might feel deeply engaged with your work while not being happy. However, research looking at the correlation between happiness and engagement shows that happy employees are more likely to be engaged. As Kevin Druse, author of Employee Engagement 2.0, says: “Engagement at work is not the same as happiness, but you need engagement to achieve happiness.” So when looking at how to achieve engagement, you can’t leave happiness out of the equation.Why is employee engagement important?

Employee engagement matters because it impacts on an organisation's critical areas - from performance to productivity to retention to reputation.

Employee engagement and productivity

Falling or flat productivity is a problem in some countries, including the UK, where over a third of workers questioned in one study admitted they’re productive for less than 30 hours a week. Employee engagement has almost magical effects on productivity, boosting it by up to 21%. And of course, that has a considerable impact on the bottom line.So why are engaged workers so much more productive? One theory is that they put in more ‘discretionary effort.’ In other words, they’re more willing to go the extra mile, doing things even if they’re not expected of them and putting in an extra effort like staying late to complete their work or hit deadlines. 82% of engaged employees say they go above and beyond, according to Sodexo’s Move, Mould, Motivate report.

Boosting staff retention

When employees are engaged, studies show that staff turnover drops by up to 59%.1 And that means a more stable - and productive - workforce. Plus, engaged employees can be evangelists for an organisation. They’re almost 9 times more likely to recommend their company as a good place to work, helping build an organisation’s reputation as an employee brand of choice.This matters, because the costs of replacing a member of staff are enormous. Estimates suggest that in the US, replacing an employee is equivalent to anything between six to twelve months' salary. In the UK, that can cost up to £30,000.And it's not just about money. When someone leaves, there's a disruption to teams and dents to morale. Knowledge may flow out of the organisation. Businesses need to find and train recruits and continually repeat the process depending on the size of the churn rate. And new employees need time to get up to speed, which has an impact on that all-important productivity.The risks of losing staff are high. According to a survey by one recruiter, over half of UK employees would like to leave their jobs. In particular, Millennials are likely to have itchy feet, with 49% saying they’d like to quit their job within the next two years. All the more reason, then, to make employee engagement a priority.

Lowering absenteeism

A disengaged employee keeps taking unplanned time off. The rest of the team have to pick up the slack, chipping away at engagement and morale, and increasing the workload. More people become disengaged and take more unplanned time off. When it comes to engagement, absenteeism can be a vicious circle, and an expensive one at that - productivity losses related to sickness absence run into billions of dollars a year. Engaging employees, including boosting wellbeing, is vital. Studies show that engaged employees perform better, and engaged employees take less sick leave.

Improving customer service

The passion and commitment of genuinely engaged employees will show in everything they do - including interactions with customers. They’ll be willing to go the extra mile to create a good rapport and customer experience, making the customer more likely to recommend the company. Plus, they’re more likely to contribute ideas for how to improve the experience even further. All bottom-line boosters for companies.

Adosphere, with its wide range of features and applications has given the world a fresh mode of scaling and enhancing communication and employee engagement.

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