Companies, organizations, and startups who have satisfied, happy, and engaged employees have better business performance. This is simply because happy employees naturally work more and deliver enhanced results. When the situation is opposite, productivity decreases, and motivation levels decline.

For instance, think of it this way, when you don’t like the way your boss treats you, you don’t feel like working. Every day, you receive your daily tasks, sit in front of your system, and you stare at the computer screen. Some internal inertia keeps you from delivering the work that will only take 40 minutes. Does this sound familiar?

We have all been there some time or the other, and this is not just about the workplace. We have been experiencing this all our lives, in school, university, college, and workplace, obviously, in different forms.

However, here, the actual question is, is employee engagement necessary for every organization?

Yes, it is. If we go back to the above example, then it is evident that anyone can be detached from work. But, how does this affect an organization as a whole?

When you look at one employee, it is fine because he or she may return to normal functioning or at least you can talk about it. Now, imagine, in a company of 50 employees,20 are facing low engagement. It is a big percentage, and that is how as a whole, an organization’s working is affected. If even 10 of these employees fail to deliver on time, you will have to answer a lot of questions for delayed results.

The logic behind employee engagement

According to Hay Group, employees are 43% more productive when they are engaged.

Gallup Data proves that 21% higher productivity is seen when employee engagement is high.

Engaged employees are willingly involved in their work, complete it on time, and sometimes even deliver extra. If the whole team is engaged, everybody works with full efficiency, delivers higher output, and increases the overall productivity of the task. These employees also tend to work for longer hours and rarely fall prey to workplace rut and stress.

How this increases business performance?

Workplace Research Foundation found out that you could achieve an extra $2,400 income per year, per employee by enhancing employee engagement by 10%.

If most of your employees are performing better, delivering more efficiently, and taking fewer leaves, it is natural that your company performance will increase.

Looking at the same Gallup Data mentioned above, it is clear that high employee engagement results in-

• 10% higher customer satisfaction
• 22% more profits
• 21% productivity increase
• Fewer leaves (-37%)
• Involvement in less incidents (-49%)
• Less involvement in quality defects (-41%)

Increased business value and employee engagement

Generally, there are three ways of increasing business performance and value-

1. Process enhancement
2. Capital enhancement
3. Employee engagement

Any competitor can match your process and capital enhancement, but, no one can replace your people. What most organizations don’t understand is that they don’t make a difference with their capital or unique processes, human capital is the key. This is not to say that other two are not important because practically your company can’t run without process and capital improvements. But, remember, your company can’t run without engaged, happy employees also.

Your human capital is a resource you can utilize against your biggest competitors, since it is always the people who make a difference. Your innovation, idea, and strategy run through their minds, and these are the people who make it happen. Hence, it is necessary to keep your most important resources engaged, satisfied, and happy.

One of the increasingly popular ways of employee engagement is the use of a robust employee recognition program. It helps celebrate success’es and helps reinforce the desired behaviour in more individuals. When employees get recognized for their contributions, they are motivated, charged up and often end up delivering more. Their peers aspire for similar recognitions and also get charged up to deliver more.

We recently created a document highlighting 7 must-haves in an employee recognition program. It lists our some practical ideas, that you can implement at your organization to enhance your employee recognition and employee engagement initiatives.