Engaging Your Employees. Why You Should Care.
Employee engagement is a metric most companies don’t measure, but it’s one that can have the greatest impact on financial results. In fact, organizations with highly engaged employees outperform others by as much as 202%, said JJ White, Dale Carnegie Certified Executive Coach and Master Trainer during a recent VACEOs Knowledge Network presentation.
If you’re not convinced your employees crave active participation in your organization, check out these stats from White:
• More engaged employees are 480% more committed to helping your business succeed
• They are 370% more likely to recommend your company as an employer
• They are 250% more likely to recommend improvements.
In addition, the less engaged your employees are, the more likely they are to leave, and if you lose a top performer, that can be especially painful to your bottom line.
According to White, “Why people work – and stay working – for your company is hard to identify, even harder to affect and near impossible to sustain unless great attention is given to it. Talent is the only asset that truly differentiates your company from the competition. Take care of it more than anything else in your business. If not, your competition will.”
White adds, “Good employees are hard to find, hard to keep and usually the largest line item on an income statement. Taking care of employees is taking care of business.”
On an eye-opening note, White reports that statistically, only 30 percent of your employees are engaged in your company right now. How do you rectify that? Here’s a high-level snapshot of what we learned.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN, “ENGAGED”?
What is this strange animal we call an “engaged employee”? Simple. It’s your dream employee: someone who cares about the organization as much as you do, who takes ownership of the task at hand and wants to participate in the success of the business, and is an everyday walking and talking embodiment of your mission.
What squashes a culture of engagement? Lots of times, it’s you, the boss, or middle management. The biggest engagement drivers for employees? Relationships with their direct supervisors, belief in senior management and pride in the organization.
According to White, the number-one driver of employee engagement is the performance of front-line supervisors. Seventy-five percent of people who voluntarily leave their jobs do so because of their manager.
GET ENGAGED. HERE’S HOW.
Getting your employees engaged is a process, with steps that don’t necessarily need to be followed in a specific order.
Creating a Culture of Engagement in Your Workplace:
1) Conduct an employee engagement survey. Consider hiring a pro to administrate it and analyze the results.
2) Assemble innovation teams that will address ideas for engagement.
3) Train your managers – and encourage them to focus on the “warm & fuzzy” aspects of managing people.
4) Establish a formal recognition and reward program. Follow it.
5) Develop an Employee Value Proposition statement.
WE’RE ENGAGED. NOW WHAT?
Once your company is on the right track, it’s up to you to keep it there. Do that, and the rewards will be great.
Sustaining a Culture of Engagement
1. Create a culture that encourages engagement.
2. Measure engagement periodically.
3. Develop action plans to address disengagement.
4. Hold managers accountable.
5. Recognize and reward progress.
Ask Yourself:
• Is employee engagement a priority in my business?
• Do I have an employee engagement strategy?
• Am I confident in my plans to engage and retain my talent?]
Want more information on this topic? Contact us or JJ White directly at jj.white@carnegiebusinessgroup.com today!
About JJ White
JJ White joined Dale Carnegie Training as a franchise owner in 2000. He is a Certified Executive Coach and Master Trainer and holds certification in the Sales Effectiveness, Leadership, Employee Engagement, Presentation Effectiveness and Process Improvement curricula. JJ has been a member of the Virginia Council of CEOs since 2011, serving as a roundtable leader and current member of the VACEOs Advisory Board.
His recent accomplishments include induction into the Dale Carnegie Millennium Group, a collection of the top 20 franchises in the world. In 2006, he was named one of “Top 20 Under 40” business leaders in the region by Blue Ridge Business Journal. He is also a past president of the International Dale Carnegie Franchisee Association, a group of 220 franchise owners from over 90 countries. Founded in 1912, Dale Carnegie Training boosts employee engagement by impacting the behaviors of leaders and team members at every level in the organization. As the world’s largest adult training organization, Dale Carnegie is represented in over 90 countries and provides training in more than 30 languages.
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