There are other studies and reports with much lower rates as it depends who you ask. Generally speaking, employee engagement is around 50% at its best, this either means that half of the organizations are not engaging their employees and unleashing their full intellect, or half of the employees in every organization are not engaged, either way, we have a problem that has to be fixed.
Kevin Kruse who writes for Forbes, says: “When employees care—when they are engaged—they use discretionary effort! This means the engaged computer programmer works overtime when needed, without being asked. This means the engaged retail clerk picks up the trash on the store floor, even if the boss isn’t watching.
Engaged employees lead to better business outcomes. In fact, according to Towers Perrin research companies with engaged workers have 6% higher net profit margins, and according to Kenexa research engaged companies have five times higher shareholder returns over five years.”
Investing in employees engagement makes a lot of sense and positively affects your bottom line and gives you a good ROI, but the million dollar question is how do we achieve higher employee engagement rates and ensure that the vast majority of our people are engaged ?
The answer lies in the right “organizational culture” which is much easier said than done, but it is easy to take the first step by creating a short-term plan with actionable points towards an inclusive, transparent and fair environment that makes employees feel:
- As a vital part of the organization
- Valued & useful
- That they have real opportunities for growth and advancement within the organization
- That their good efforts are noticed, encouraged, talked-about and rewarded
Luckily there are useful applications that can help you accelerate and better manage this process or at least parts of it such as:
- Gamification and performance monitoring systems
- Recognition and rewards systems
- Learning Management systems
More information and useful links:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2012/06/22/employee-engagement-what-and-why/#78c2456a4629
http://www.dalecarnegie.com/employee-engagement/
http://www.aon.com/human-capital-consulting/thought-leadership/talent/2016-Trends-in-Global-Employee-Engagement.jsp
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