More On Engagement
The top reasons why engagement opportunities are beneficial to staff
(source: Enboarder, 2023)
The main reasons why more employees don't participate in engagement opportunities (with some tips to handle):
1. Not offered at convenient times (tips - check with staff about availability before finalising date(s); offer self-paced sessions so that staff can take advantage of opportunities on their own time; offer training in shorter sessions over longer periods of time)
2. Don't feel authentic (tips - put staff relationships and connections at the centre of every event; encourage employee-driven programs rather than top-down mandates)
3. Not relevant to your role or responsibilities at the organisation (tips - personalise programs; understand training needs and build programs around them).
Positives of engagement
"...Engaged employees produce better business outcomes than other employees do - across industries, company sizes and nationalities, and in good economic times and bad..."
Jim Harter, 2022
Engagement is more than making employees happy and/or content. It is about treating staff as valuable stakeholders:
"...this means focusing on concrete performance management activities, such as clarifying work expectations, getting people what they need to do their work, providing development and promoting positive co-worker relationships..."
Jim Harter, 2022
Staff, also, have to feel wanted, ie their opinions, ideas, etc respected; encourage buy-in.
(for more detail, see elsewhere in the Knowledge Base)
In the USA the majority of the workforce are reportedly disengaged, ie 65% (Gallup, 2022); they are indifferent, ie neither like nor dislike their job.
"...business with work units that scored in the top quartile of their organisation in employee engagement more than double their odds of success (based on a composite of financial, customer, retention, safety, quality, shrinkage and absentee metrics) when compared with those in the bottom quartile. Those in the 99th percentile have nearly 5 times the success rate of those at the first percentile..."
Jim Harter, 2022
Some statistics supporting the above statement, ie high engaged staff vs. low engaged staff
| Metric | Elements of metric | Differences between highly engaged & lowly engaged organisation |
| Showing up & staying | absenteeism | 81% difference |
| productivity | 14% difference | |
| staff turnover | 18% difference | |
| Customer outcome | customer rating/loyalty | 10% difference |
| Well-being | absenteeism | 66% difference |
| Safety | safety incidents | 64% difference |
| Quality | defects | 41% difference |
| sales | 18% difference | |
| Financial | profit | 23% difference (sources: Jim Harter, 2022; Gallup, 2023) |
The characteristics of highly engaged organisations include
"...- They know creating a culture of engagement starts at the top
- Their leaders are aligned in prioritising engagement as a competitive, strategic point of differentiation
- They communicate openly and consistently
- They place the utmost importance on using the right metrics and on hiring and developing great managers..."
Jim Harter, 2022
Additionally, they hold their managers accountable for themselves and their staff, plus develop programs for staff development