15 Jul
Introduction
Employee engagement is the emotional connection and commitment that an employee has towards the workplace. Every manager looks forward to working with engaged, focused, and committed employees. In fact, many organizations tweak their Rewards and Recognition processes and change the workplace culture to improve engagement rates at work. So, why are the benefits of employee engagement so important?
Our last blog talked about the impact of employee engagement on productivity levels. This blog takes the topic further by delving into the other outcomes of employee engagement at work.
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1. Reduced quality issues
While the quality of work is something everyone needs to keep up, in some sectors, a quality dip could become disastrous. Imagine a manufacturing industry that churns out thousands of products per hour. One disengaged employee, who makes a mistake with the initial settings, can lead to the industry being left behind with hundreds of thousands of ill-sized products that cannot be sold.
An engaged employee has better focus, and hence, the risk of making a quality error is lower. One of the top positive outcomes of employee engagement is hence better work quality, across the organization.
2. Improved workplace safety
Another very important benefit of employee engagement is improved workplace safety. A study concludes that engaged employees are five times less likely to be involved in a workplace safety incident than non-engaged employees. Again, some workplaces have higher safety risks than others, and it could be highly problematic to deal with disengaged employees in such places.
An engaged employee is conscious of workplace safety, for themselves and for others around, and companies can save a ton of time and money when there are fewer workplace safety incidents. This is one of the employee engagement benefits that you just cannot ignore.
3. Reduced absenteeism
Absenteeism is not being available for work during a typical workday. It is common for employees to take a leave of absence when they are sick or for personal reasons. However, what happens when employees don’t plan in advance and are absent frequently? This not only affects the work of that person but also affects overall productivity in teams where people are dependent on one another to finish tasks.
A Gallup report states that organizations that have engaged employees, observe a reduction in absenteeism by up to 41%. A disengaged employee keeps looking out for opportunities to stay back home as there is no motivation to get to work. Another outcome of employee engagement that organizations can definitely look up to is reduced absenteeism.
4. Improved retention rates
Every organization has an average employee retention rate. Employee retention rate is the percentage of employees who stay back working for you. This is the opposite of the turnover rate. A very profitable benefit of employee engagement is enjoying an improved retention rate. An employee who is engaged at work will not have the need to look for another job. Organizations invest considerable money in training and retaining employees. Improved retention rates will help organizations to tap into their workforce optimally.
5. Happier workplace
While employee engagement and employee happiness are not the same, they are definitely related to one another. Some of the best feelings ever are to feel valued, important, useful, and worthy. An engaged employee gets to feel all this every day at work and that is why one of the benefits of employee engagement is happiness. A group of engaged employees will bring up the happiness quotient at work.
6. Less need for monitoring
One of the outcomes of employee engagement that everyone benefits from is less micro-management. A typical manager handles multiple employees, their grievances and productivity levels, and customer demands, apart from having to be an independent contributor. Managers can face burnout quickly if they need to constantly monitor employees under them.
When employees are engaged with their work, they get self-resilient and independent. They take responsibilities seriously and require less monitoring.
7. Improved innovation in the workplace
The importance of employee engagement is evident even in innovation. Don’t believe us? Keep reading. A very important study in the field of innovation talks about four stages of innovating.
Now, employees can explore an idea only when they are invested in it. Investment in an idea happens more frequently in engaged employees. Similarly, only an engaged employee can take the effort to actually back up and champion an idea. So, employee engagement is super important to promote innovation at work.
8. Improved productivity
This is, undoubtedly, one of the top benefits of employee engagement. So much has been discussed about engagement levels and their impact on employee productivity in our last blog. Here is a little more to add.
A large-scale Gallup study mentions that employees who have higher engagement rates are 22% more productive at work. Engaged employees don’t need to worry about being productive. It happens naturally, thanks to the engagement levels.
9. Happier customers
If customer happiness is not one of the top benefits of employee engagement, then what is?
Customer experiences are a direct result of employee activities in an organization. An employee engagement survey concludes that organizations with more than 50% employee engagement manage to retain more than 80% of their customers.
The study also states that companies with formal employee engagement programs see increased revenue of about 39% in new customers every year. This is an added advantage too.
10. Improved profitability
Another benefit of employee engagement that can be very positive for the organization is increased profitability rates. This works in multiple layers.
- Engaged employees experience fewer safety incidents
- Engaged employees improve the quality of products/services offered
- Engaged employees are more productive, both individually and as a team
- Engaged employees keep customers/clients happy
All these, together, help improve the profits of the organization.
11. Fewer chances of delays
Delays, in the workplace, happen when employees are given a deadline but are not able to keep up with it. Now, it is impossible to avoid delays completely. However, engaged employees can keep this at a minimum because they are focused and take up the deadline responsibility themselves, without waiting for someone from the management to keep reminding them. This is one of the benefits of employee engagement that also add to customer satisfaction over time.
12. Better use of training and learning platforms
Learning and Development and employee engagement go hand in hand. While L&D programs are highly effective in improving employee engagement, employee engagement also helps make better use of these L&D platforms.
One of the more subtle outcomes of employee engagement that you cannot ignore is making optimal use of learning and development programs. Engaged employees are eager to learn and up-skill themselves, and in organizations where employees are truly engaged, they are eager to use L&D resources without the need for mandatory training and learning sessions. Do read our blog on career growth and employee engagement trends here.
13. Improved teamwork
Just like when every part works well, a machine performs seamlessly, one of the benefits of employee engagement is better teamwork. With every team member doing their task well and with focus, the whole team moves seamlessly and achieves goals easily.
14. Less stress in the workplace
Both engaged and disengaged employees may go through workplace stress. However, we have added this point to the list of benefits of employee engagement because engaged employees may handle stress better.
Employees who are dedicated and focused have the support of the management and peers and this may make it easy to handle stress. Also, since engaged employees handle their work better and adhere to deadlines, there are fewer instances that could cause workplace stress.
15. Improved employee advocacy
What is employee advocacy, you may wonder? It is when your employees step out and talk positively about you and your organization, acting as voluntary brand ambassadors. Engaged employees have a sense of belonging to the organization, and as a result, are unconsciously on the lookout for potential team members who can join them. This is one of the positive outcomes of employee engagement for sure. Imagine word-of-mouth references and handpicked recommendations for new hires, without having to spend anything extra for this!
Conclusion
There are so many positive outcomes of employee engagement and these outcomes help both the organization and the employees to develop and progress. So, have you checked your employee engagement rates? Does the number satisfy you?
One of the first things you could do to quickly fix engagement levels is get your rewards and recognition program right. This directly impacts employee engagement. PossibleWorks specializes in creating custom R&R programs that improve overall employee engagement and satisfaction levels. Do get in touch with us to set up or tweak your existing program or revamp the entire process. These are just some of the top benefits of employee engagement put together. There is so much more you can achieve as an organization when you start focusing on improving engagement levels.
