Many companies today report that they prioritize engagement or regularly survey their employees to track their satisfaction. But in reality, employee engagement is in crisis.
This year in India, employee engagement rate dropped to a dismal 34%, marking the first decrease in a decade. Managers and healthcare workers experienced the most precipitous drop, which is likely to impact many companies output. It is essential to be clear on why employee engagement matters to understand the potential impacts of this trend.
Benefits Of Employee Engagement: –
The benefits of employee engagement are surprisingly broad, ranging from workplace safety to share prices. Many of these factors are interconnected, making employee engagement a powerful predictor of an organization’s success. Also, check out the best employee wellness software.
1. Lower Turnover:
Employees who aren’t engaged with their work are likely to look elsewhere. And since it costs one-half to twice an employee’s annual salary. To replace them not to mention the less tangible impacts on staff morale and productivity focusing on employee engagement can produce major cost savings for organizations.
2. Reduced Employee Stress:
Less engaged employees are likely to feel more stressed, and stress decreases engagement, creating a vicious spiral that can be hard to break. Reducing stress and increasing engagement pays dividends, showcasing another reason why employee engagement is important.
3. Decreased Burnout:
Low engagement and unchecked stress can lead to burnout, a state characterized in part by a lack of motivation and inability to connect with one’s work. According to a report, about 49% of workers reported at least some level of burnout in April 2021. Improving employee engagement can help keep employees from reaching that state, from which it can be difficult to recover.
4. Improved Collaboration:
Employees who feel connected to their company and their teammates are more likely to feel a sense of camaraderie and to collaborate effectively with their colleagues. This, in turn, promotes engagement among their peers, creating a positive cycle.
5. Better Employee Health:
Employees who are disengaged with their work are more likely to suffer from negative physical and mental health, which can further decrease productivity and increase an organization’s costs. Employees who feel positive about their jobs, on the other hand, are more likely to experience increased well-being and have energy for wellness-promoting behaviours like exercise.
Given the many benefits of employee engagement, companies that prioritize health and happiness in the workplace are likely to experience positive outcomes across the broad. Ultimately, engaged employees are a powerful tool to raise revenues and position the company for many years of success.
Fostering employee engagement important to safety professionals!
Organizations that want to accelerate safety performance need to focus on further engaging their workforce in safety. A study in 2016 of over 1.8 million workers found that businesses rated in the top quarter for employee engagement had 70% fewer workplace incidents than those in the bottom quarter. In fact, employee engagement is becoming so important that worker participation and consultation are now frequently included in new safety regulations and international standards like ISO 45001.
Every employee exerts significant social power in the workplace that influences the perceptions and beliefs of their co-workers. When enough workers feel that their opinions do not matter, this collective social power can quickly turn negative and undermine key company safety initiatives, increasing the risk of injury. A study conducted by Queen’s School of business found that disengaged workers were 50% more likely to be involved in a workplace accident.
Tips for Employee Engagement: –
These employee engagement tips will help you create a better work environment with happier more productive people.
Encourage Communication & Conversation:
Communication, both formal and informal, is one of the key elements in creating a workplace with high levels of employee engagement. It’s crucial to have the resources and services in place that make it as easy as possible for individuals to interact with one another. Receiving worthwhile and sincere feedback is also necessary so that your business can improve. Emphasize its importance and offer means for employees to be forthright and honest.
Let Them Share Their Enthusiasm:
More than any other form of marketing, referrals from friends and family are the most trusted by consumers. Several people outside of your company’s walls have ties with your staff, including customers, prospects, partners, and
potential new hires. Let them yell about how passionate they are about your business (social media).
Reward The Actions You Want:
Here, the traditional carrot and stick approach is being used. You likely already have an idea of the level of engagement you desire from your workforce. Set up some incentives for them. Even a simple shout-out from a senior official may be more than sufficient. By utilizing the power of incentives to employees, promote this habit.
Measure Engagement Frequently:
It’s common for companies to send employees an annual anonymous engagement survey, but this isn’t very effective because it doesn’t provide an accurate picture of employee engagement throughout the year.
Here are some excellent ways to measure employee engagement:
- Short frequent Surveys
- Meetings with Individual Employees
- Employee Net Promoter Score
- Employee Turnover Rates / Absence rates
Trends In Employee Engagement: –
The value of the concept of employee engagement has only increased over time. But there aren’t many employee engagement trends to be aware of due to changes in our working environment and technological advancements, like anything else.
1. Give the employee experience greater weight. This entails placing a greater emphasis on helping people have the finest work experiences possible, even if they advance in their professions.
2. Employees are more concerned with flexibility than ever. Although the need for more flexible jobs and remote work has been increasing, the epidemic made people think more about these issues because many individuals were forced to work from home. Even though there are still classic office positions, when given the freedom to do their best work, employees are more engaged.
3. Support the technology that workers wish to utilize. Although there is a wide variety of software available, your firm requires the correct technology to keep its employees interested. You need software like OccuCare that flexibly and effectively defines and drives community.
Key modules for smooth Employee Engagement:
1. Incident Management: – An essential part of any Employee Engagement software, an incident management system enables you to report incidents & near- misses instantly & remotely, align teams to act on key indicators, analyze root causes and take corrective & preventive measures based on manageable insights with all in go at one place with OCCUCARE.
2. Audit Management: – Audit management in complete safety & ethical ways is a critical part of an Employee Engagement process. OCCUCARE helps you to inspect & analyze all non-compliant processes in the workplace. You can automate inspection schedules, enable mobile audits, and create customized forms & checklists.
3. Permit Management: – This module in OCCUCARE would help you to track & monitor all safe work procedures & conditions of workers & contractors in real-time with software, you can go from issuing permits, and gaining authorities to initiating work operations with better control & clarity.
4. Risk Assessment: – Risk management & Hazard identification is a key initiative, with digitized hazard identification & risk assessment (HIRA) software you can see risks early, understand hazards better, and map out control measures to create a sustainable work environment.
Conclusion: –
There are many benefits of a valuable Employee Engagement Software or System, which would be helpful to streamline your business without any resistance and excellent work culture and environment.
While you are looking for an important way to streamline your business’s work culture and manage health and safety of employees, then OccuCare is a one-stop solution as an Employee Engagement Software.