For many learning professionals, strengthening employee performance is mission critical to many of their strategies… all of which are, or rather should be, aligned with the business. While there are many ways to have a positive impact on performance, there is one that typically shows a higher yield. I’m talking about employee engagement.

Put simply, employee engagement doesn’t just impact the individual, but also the entire workforce. It has an impact on the company culture as well as helps, when done right, to promote a psychologically safe environment. Furthermore, it creates a real opportunity for employees to take ownership over their learning and their work.

Translation: happy, engaged workers make for a strong, profitable company.

Employee Engagement

Despite everything happening in the business world today as it relates to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Great Resignation, and trying to figure out remote work, employee engagement still ranks as a concern for professionals today. According to a Harvard Business report, 71 percent rank employee engagement as very important to achieving overall organizational success. That same report also reports, however, 24 percent of the employees in their organizations are highly engaged. That leaves a lot of room for improvement.

So what’s driving employee engagement?

• Developmental opportunities for employees on both the personal and professional level
• Corporate goals are outlined and understood
• Business goals are aligned with assessments and performance reviews
• Work is recognized
• How work positively impacts the organization as a whole

Know that information is only half the battle. Each of those drivers are rated differently by the employee. To be more precise, individual employees weight these differently. That’s why company leaders must find a way to balance all five. Through this balance, as with all things, employee performance can be strengthened.

And the “proof is in the pudding.” If done correctly, companies with engaged employees will out-perform other companies to the tune of 202 percent!

Increase Productivity through Engagement

With that said, how does an organization increase productivity through employee engagement?

1. Flexibility

Offering employees an opportunity to set and design their own schedule feels counterintuitive at first glance. Most leaders are conditioned to believe giving an employee the ability to set their own work hours will cause a decrease in productivity. A fair amount of research suggests the opposite is true. Employees given the freedom to set their own schedules are often more productive and happier employees. They are also more engaged in the workplace.

2. Required Tools

When an employee starts working for a new company, he/she/they will expect to have the needed tools to complete their job responsibilities effectively. If the employee has access to those items and can work as expected, employee engagement will flourish. Deloitte calls this “enabling infrastructure.” Without the necessary tools, employees will disengage.

3. Feedback

Employee feedback is important. Even more important is the need for leaders to listen to the feedback and act on that information. This isn’t to say every leader has to do or put into practice every employee suggestion, but they do need to consider the feedback. Additionally, the leader must be transparent about the feedback and whether it will be put into action. According to an employee engagement report from Aon, this approach to feedback helps an organization quickly address problems, but more importantly it makes the employee feel valued. Thus, it increases engagement.

4. Manager selection

It’s been said before: employees don’t leave companies. They leave bad managers. Managers and leaders are critical to employee engagement success according to Gallup. The right leader knows their success and the organization’s success is linked to the engagement of the employee. Hiring the right external candidate or internal candidate for a manager role; one whom possesses the ability to manage people effectively can have a positive impact on engagement rates.

5. Training and Development Opportunities

Investing in employees’ by offering training and development opportunities provides the atmosphere for workers to become more engaged. A lack of these opportunities typically translates to the employee not feeling valued by the company and will thus negatively impact the chance for engagement. Employees who are not invested will not support the company in any way other than making sure they can protect their job. At least until they can secure other employment.

Engagement Drives Performance

Among some leaders today, there is an idea that happiness drives employee performance. In fact, happiness is sometimes considered to be the same as employee engagement. That is not the case. Happiness, while important, does not drive performance in the same way employee engagement drives performance. Red Branch Media CEO Maren Hogan said it best.

“[Employee happiness] doesn’t mean much. There’s no proof that happy employees will do anything great for your company. While I don’t want to deny employees’ happiness, I’d rather have engaged employees. Those are the people who drive the numbers up – people who are passionate and maybe even a little frustrated when change doesn’t occur.”

Companies who invest in employee engagement will see an increase in performance. That’s the bottom-line that helps the bottom-line.

Employees First

“Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.”

No doubt that is a familiar phrase. It was said by Sir Richard Branson, the owner of the Virgin Group. It can be a hard pill to swallow for most, but from an employee engagement perspective it is very true.

Think about it for a moment.

Every business is focused on making sure their clients are satisfied, not only with the customer service, but the product as well. That gets increasingly more difficult if your employees aren’t connected to the company and the product. If the employees aren’t giving their best, what makes the leaders think they are going to do their best in selling the product or be brand ambassadors for the business? A few years ago, that might have been the case, but as more and more millennials enter the workforce, not to mention Generation Z, that’s changed. Pay isn’t as important as it once was.

Engaging with employees becomes significantly important here. That engagement can take the form of employee development that supports growth. It can also take the form of feedback. Listening to employees can serve a company well. Not only does it allow for the discovery of potential problems, but it allows a company the ability to gain insight from employees about how to better the product, business process, or overall communication to name a few.

In Summation

Employee engagement will continue to be a big focus in the weeks, months, and weeks ahead.

As companies continue to work their respective ways through the challenges related to the pandemic, we will see a lot of emphasis put on strategies to keep employees engaged. At the heart of that will be the idea that leaders want employee to feel supported by the organization. When the employee feels connected and supported, there will be increases in her/his/their productivity and the company will feel the impact.

But it’s more than just a financial impact.

Companies who embrace employee engagement will see lower turnover rates and will see the creation of more “forever employees”. Translation: employee engagement offers something rare to companies – the no lose scenario.