
However, in a majority of organisations, employee engagement remains lower than 35 per cent. In light of this information, Impraise conducted a study based on over 30,000 feedback interactions between hundreds of managers and employees to see how they would differ from each other when asking for feedback. The results were interesting and gave a better understanding of the how engaged employees are.
Understanding emotional commitment
It’s important to understand what employee engagement actually means. According to Kevin Kruse, author of “We: How to Increase Performance and Profits Through Full Engagement”, employee engagement is “the emotional commitment that we have to our organisation and the organisation’s goals. When we’re engaged, we’re emotionally committed, which means we’re going to give effort voluntarily. We’re going to go the extra mile.” Some influencers go further and talk about “sustainable engagement” which, according to Tony Schwartz, co-author of “The Power of Full Engagement”, means “the added energy derived from the capacity for absorbed focus and a strong sense of purpose.” The new meta-analysis of over 1.4m employees conducted by the Gallup Organisation found that organisations with a high level of engagement report 22 per cent higher productivity and profitability. The analysis also found that highly engaged organisations have double the rate of success of lower engaged ones. However, despite all those benefits, Kevin Sheridan author of “Building a Magnetic Culture”, said even the best companies register only about 38 per cent of employees as “fully engaged”. So why does employee engagement remain so low?Interpersonal vs productivity
Real-time engagement
Analysing comes first when boosting engagement. Before doing anything in particular, measuring the level of engagement in your company will create a benchmark from which you can make decisions. Measuring methods still differ among companies. Ryan Fuller, an effectiveness expert with over 20 years of experience, proposes some aspects to measure in order to get an overview of the engagement level.Focus on the purpose – boost engagement
Now that you have an approximate approach of the level of engagement in your company, it’s time to work on boosting it. According to Jim Harter, a chief scientist at Gallup Research, “One way to simplify engagement is to focus on purpose. Communicate the purpose of the organisation, and how employees’ individual purposes fit into that purpose. When employees clearly know their role, have what they need to fulfil their role, and can see the connection between their role and the overall organisational purpose,” said Harter, that’s the recipe for creating greater levels of engagement. Eliminating stress, showing appreciation and giving your employees the opportunity to grow are three pillars to boost employee engagement. According to research by Towers Watson, employees who experience too much stress at work are less engaged and less productive. For that, simple activities to distend such as guided meditation sessions three times a week for 20 minutes before working would help to reduce everyone’s stress. For showing appreciation, expressing praise regularly, not just at annual reviews or holiday parties would make your employees work harder and care more about their jobs when their efforts are noticed and rewarded. For employees, the desire to find better growth opportunities became the number one reason today’s talented young employees are leaving their employers. In order to keep your current employees engaged, a good way to show employees that you want them to grow professionally and keep them in the team is to have 1:1 conversations about personal and professional goals, outlining how the company can help to this process of growing.Steffen Maieris the co-founder of Impraise.
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