The Employee Engagement Dilemma

Why Happy Employees Aren’t Always Engaged - And What You Can do About it

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IntroductionHow many of your employees are actively engaged in their role at your company? Not simply happy, but actually engaged?

As companies constantly look for ways to boost productivity, lower turnover rates and increase profits, it’s an important question to ask. As you’re probably aware, the reality is that despite knowing that employee engagement is a big problem, engagement rates have remained stagnant year over year at about 32 percent. Even worse, 17 percent of these individuals are so disengaged that they’re having a negative impact on their company’s performance.

At the same time, employee satisfaction rates have risen to a 10-year high of 70 percent.

So, while many organizations are actively taking steps to improve their employees’ overall experience within their companies, they haven’t yet cracked the code that leads to improved employee engagement.

That’s where this ebook comes in.

Within this guide, we’ll provide you with an overview of the employee engagement issue that plagues many businesses today. Then we’ll offer strategies you can use to make positive changes in your organization so that you can work towards building a highly engaged, successful workforce.

Employee Engagement Rate

17% are so disengaged that they have a negative impact on company performance.

Employee satisfaction rates have risen to a 10 year high.70%

32%

at the same time...

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What is Employee Engagement?Contrary to popular belief, an employee’s engagement is not the same as their happiness or job satisfaction. These qualities are certainly important indicators of employee engagement, but a truly engaged employee also exhibits qualities such as loyalty, productivity and a strong motivation to help the company succeed.

When an individual is this connected to an organization, its success becomes very personal for them – and they become more invested in both their role and in the future success of the company. When an individual is

this connected to an organization, its success becomes very personal for them.

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A $450 Billion ProblemThe research is clear: engagement levels have a direct impact on a company’s bottom line. In fact, disengagement results in $450 billion in lost productivity each year. It also leads to the following:

• Higher absenteeism rates

• More safety incidents

• Decreased customer satisfaction

• More quality defects

• Increased rates of theft

• Reduced retention rates

To bring that figure closer to home, consider this statistic from Gallup: a single disengaged worker costs their organization $3,400 for every $10,000 in salary. When you consider that 17 percent of employees are actively disengaged (these are the worst offenders in the “not engaged” category), it becomes pretty clear that employee engagement is an issue that needs to be taken seriously if employers are going to achieve their highest levels of success.

It’s no wonder why employee engagement has become one of the top global business initiatives in recent years.

A Quick CalculationWant to find out how much money you could be losing each year due to employee disengagement? This easy calculation will help:

A x B =

Total cost to your company

Number of employees

x 0.17

=

A

Average employee salary

x 0.34

=

B

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The Top Drivers of Employee EngagementTo improve engagement, we have to better understand some of the factors that positively contribute to an employee’s engagement level. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) studied this extensively and found that engagement had less to do with financial compensation and more to do with their work and the employee’s relationships within the organization.

With this in mind, the top contributors they found were:

• Relationships with co-workers

• Opportunities to use their skills and abilities

• The meaningfulness of their job

• Relationship with immediate supervisor

• A feeling that they’re contributing towards the organization’s business goals

• The culture of the organization

Now that we better understand some of the top contributors to employee engagement, let’s dive into the ways we can positively impact these areas of our organizations.

Engagement had less to do with financial compensation and more to do with work and employee’s relationships within the organization

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Improving Employee Engagement & Retention

PART 2

1 Corporate Culture When we think about culture, we often think about things such as dress code, flexibility, work environment and the employee benefits package. While these are all incredibly important features of an organization’s culture, however, they are more a product of the culture the organization created than a definition of the culture itself.

So, then, what is culture?

It’s the feeling you get from an organization –and the feeling you get from the employees who work there. This feeling permeates the organization and can be felt and seen everywhere: through its collaboration, creativity and the friendships fostered along the way.

To get even more specific, corporate culture is a reflection of your organization’s “why.”

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A mission statement should concisely describe your “why” so that employees clearly understand what they’re working towards each day.

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What is Your Why?

Your mission – or your “why” – is the reason the organization exists, and the reason you and your colleagues show up for work each day. It gives you purpose (beyond collecting a paycheck) that brings a higher meaning to your work.

If your organization doesn’t yet have a mission statement, it’s worth spending some time developing one. This statement should concisely describe your “why” so that both prospective and current employees clearly understand what they’re working towards each day.

As you might recall, “meaningfulness of the job” was also a key driver of employee engagement. By spending time thinking through your organization’s mission, and creating a statement around it, employees will have greater clarity around what their role in the organization is – and how it contributes to the overall mission of the business.

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Once You Have it – You Need to Protect it

All of your best efforts to establish and maintain a positive organizational culture will be for naught if you aren’t thinking about culture during the hiring and onboarding process. Study after study has shown the same: companies that look beyond qualifications and work experience to ensure new hires are a good cultural fit for their organization have employees that are happy, productive and engaged. And because of these happy and driven employees, the organizations they work for are able to achieve even greater levels of success.

Part of this process includes a pre-employment background check (preferably with a social media screen) to verify credentials and provide an overview of the applicant’s character. As an extra step, some employers are also opting to take prospective new hires out for a relaxed dinner or activity to better gauge their personality and ability to connect with the team. This is something Zappo’s does regularly – especially if they’re on the fence about a prospective hire. By engaging with them outside of the office and getting to know them on a more personal level, the hiring team is better able to make hiring decisions that are aligned with the company culture – as well as the needs of the position.

The Benefit of Social Media ScreeningSeeing what a potential hire tweets, posts and shares can give you hints about their true character, something that might not be as obvious during the interview process. The way a candidate interacts on social media can give you an idea of how they would behave on the job. Do they act professionally online? Do they respond to comments tactfully? If their social media manners are impressive, how they behave day-to-day may be desirable as well.

By performing a social media screen during the pre-employment process, you’ll get a much better picture of the person you’re hiring – and whether they’ll be a good fit for your company culture.

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Facilitating Fun

A productive workforce doesn’t have to be “all business.” In fact, organizations that prioritize fun, and provide employees with opportunities to develop friendships with their co-workers, are far more successful than their more conservative counterparts.

Here are a few ways you can inject fun into your workplace:

• Whether it’s a catered luncheon or Friday evening happy hour, make an effort to plan regular events for employees to mingle and connect.

• Establish a company softball team or other group activity to keep employees active and engaged.

• Research shows that healthy employees are happy employees. Wellness challenges encourage employees to adopt healthy habits while getting them more engaged in the office.

• Create a game room where employees can relax and bond. Research shows that just 20 minutes a day of “game time” with co-workers can be enough to reduce stress and build relationships.

The Role of Continuous MonitoringA pre-employment background check helps ensure that anyone you invite into your company won’t disrupt the culture you’ve worked so hard to build. But the real risk isn’t inviting the wrong people in – it’s the damage that can happen post hire. From legal troubles outside of work to substance abuse, the issues your employees are dealing with in their personal lives will impact the safety, productivity and overall culture of your workplace.

With 87 percent of employee fraud committed by first-time offenders, a continuous monitoring program can be a beneficial addition to your organization by keeping tabs on employees post hire. These programs look for changes to employees’ criminal or motor vehicle reports and provide alerts when new information is found. In addition, a drug-free workplace program can identify drug and alcohol issues through random employee testing.

20 minutes a day of “game time”

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2 Clear Job RolesOnce you go through the process of discovering your “why” and developing a culture around it, the next step is to make sure each employee’s job ties in clearly with that mission so they understand their role and how they contribute to the organization’s success. When this is done successfully, employees will feel more valued and more connected to the growth of the business.

It Starts With a Job Description

When writing job descriptions for each position, make sure they clearly outline the responsibilities of the position, as well as the skills required to do the job effectively. A well-written job description sets clear expectations for the employee and ensures they know how their role contributes to the goals of the company.

It also reduces job overlap, which can make employees feel undervalued by the organization.

Prioritize Goal Setting

Setting regular benchmarks for your employees so that they have weekly, monthly and quarterly goals to work towards will help drive engagement and help employees feel directly connected to the company’s achievement. Once these goals are set, managers should check in with their team regularly to gauge progress and help keep their department on track. These meetings also provide a good opportunity to reassess goals and make adjustments when global priorities shift or the workload becomes overwhelming.

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3 Effective ManagementAlthough the culture of your organization and the establishment of clear job roles is incredibly important, perhaps nothing has as big of an impact on engagement as your employees’ relationships with their supervisors. In fact, a recent Dale Carnegie study found that how employees feel about their manager is directly related to their feelings about the organization:

“What managers do, how they behave, what they say and importantly how they say it affects employees’ attitudes about their jobs and the organization as a whole. Employees who are unhappy and dissatisfied with their immediate supervisors are less likely to identify with the organization’s vision and more likely to be absent or to resign.”

The statistics around employee engagement support this statement, with 49 percent of employees who were very satisfied with their immediate supervisor engaged in their work. Of those who were unsatisfied, 80 percent were disengaged.

49%20%

Opinion of Immediate Supervisor

Satisfied

Unsatisfied

were engaged

were engaged

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Open Communication

One of the best ways for supervisors to build and maintain positive relationships with their staff is through regular communication. This includes honest conversations around expectations and job performance to ensure job roles, current tasks and goals are well understood, as well as casual conversations about their employees’ personal lives. Engaged employees feel cared about so showing interest and concern for their lives outside of work is just as important as reviewing next quarter’s performance goals.

Encourage supervisors to communicate with their staff each day. If they don’t have time for long, face-to-face discussions, a quick phone chat or email can also be very effective.

One of the best ways for supervisors to build and maintain positive relationships with their staff is through regular communication.

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A true team effort requires all hands on deck – including those of the supervisor.

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Know Each Employee’s Role

It may seem obvious, but supervisors who clearly understand the core responsibilities of each team member, as well as how their role contributes to both the department and the larger organization, are better able to maintain happy and engaged employees. Supervisors should understand their employees’ current roles, and work with them to hone those roles over time so that their skills and abilities are being maximized. This will ensure employees feel useful and that their roles within the organization have purpose.

Lend a Hand

A true team effort requires all hands on deck – including those of the supervisor. When supervisors are willing to help when their teams need them most, they’ll absorb some of the workload (and stress), build a stronger department and establish greater levels of trust between themselves and their team. It also shows they care about the team and their success.

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Final Thoughts“Engaged workers are the lifeblood of their organizations.”

Although there is no shortage of advice designed to improve employee engagement, our research shows that companies who focus their energy on the three areas discussed in this ebook: building a positive culture, creating clear job descriptions and enhancing relationships between supervisors and staff, will see the greatest return for their efforts.

By improving these three areas, you’ll be working towards enhancing the top contributors to employee engagement. Not only will this make your workforce happier and more focused, but it will have a ripple effect that leads to all kinds of important improvements – including those in productivity, retention and customer satisfaction.

What managers do, how they behave, what they say and importantly how they say it affects employees’ attitudes about their jobs and the organization as a whole.

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About Good EggAt Good Egg, we recognized that the traditional background check process had limitations that simply couldn’t address the current needs of hiring managers – and then developed a solution. When you partner with us, our screening continuum won’t simply give you a comprehensive look back at a candidate’s past, but a look at their present and future behaviors, as well.