Is Lack of Employee Engagement Costing You?
At a recent conference, the keynote speaker stated that employees are NOT an employer’s greatest asset. Imagine, a room full of human resources professionals who suddenly set down their iPhones, sit up a little straighter and pay attention to this statement!
Imagine, a conference for HR professionals by HR professionals, and the keynote speaker states that employees are not a company’s greatest asset! This is HR interrupted!
A recent Gallup surveys show that employee engagement hovers at around 30%. With this staggering statistic, it begs the question: What’s happening with the other 70% of the workforce? According to the study, 20% are actively disengaged and the other 50% are indifferent or simply unengaged toward their work. This means that they are present, but not making innovative contributions and may not be working to their full potential. The Gallup study also shows that engaged employees are the ones that are most likely to drive innovation, growth and revenue for their companies, so it is in the best interest of companies to increase the level of employee engagement in their organization.
Where to Start?
Employee engagement is the topic at the forefront of many organizational leaders and HR professionals. What can HR do to impact employee engagement? It starts with the talent acquisition process and continues through the employee lifecycle. In the talent acquisition process, it is critical to hire not only for skill set, but also for good cultural fit. This doesn’t mean that a hiring manager should hire someone just like them, but they should consciously vet the candidate for competencies like teamwork and communication and other core values that are critical for organizational success.
The next step is the onboarding and orientation process. How is the employee introduced to the organization? Are they shown to their desk and provided a pile of paperwork to complete or is the first day engaging where the new employee is introduced to her team and maybe even taken to lunch? Ensure that the new employee has all the resources available to him or her to get the job done. Is there anything that will create a negative first impression other than being the new guy who can’t find a stapler or is seated at a desk full of their predecessor’s 5-year-old take out menus? HR and the management team have no better opportunity to create engagement than in the first year of an employee’s tenure with an organization.
What Next?
The next phase, career development or career planning, is the most critical time to ensure that employees remain engaged. During this phase of the employee life cycle, it’s easy to get sidetracked by routine and fail to recognize that employees are slowly becoming disengaged. During this time, management must consciously engage employees by soliciting new ideas, providing meaningful work and above all, continuing to coach and mentor their staff. Ensure that employees are appropriately rewarded for a job well done. Managers must work hard to seek to understand how their employees are best rewarded and ensure communication in a way that is meaningful to the employee.
By creating an engaged staff, managers will find that employees are their greatest asset. Without engagement, companies simply have a team of apathetic workers and, at worst, a team of people who may be costing the organization money.
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