We’ve seen a lot of companies engaging their employees through various programs such as paid vacations, health insurance, office parties and free-swimming lessons. Many company owners already have an idea of how these engagement programs work. However, the primary concern is whether there is any return on investment.
Most of these engagement programs cost money and time, which makes it perfectly reasonable for a businessperson to worry about ROI. Although we might not be able to link an individual program to profits or company growth, there are many ways business owners benefit from employee engagement programs. In this regard, it is safe to say that they are worth the investment. Here are some things that can only come with employee engagement programs.
Happy customers. As a business owner, the most important thing for you is to have satisfied customers. Happy customers spend happily and encourage their peers to buy your product or service. However, disengaged employees can quickly ruin the customer experience leading to frustrated customers. Obviously, frustrated customers won’t enjoy doing business with you.
According to a 2015 research paper on employee engagement programs, companies with an employee engagement program enjoyed more than 200% customer loyalty. As a business owner, this is what you want, as numbers don’t lie. The report also concluded that companies that used employee engagement programs were seven times more likely to link customer experience to employee performance.
More profits. Engaged employees are more likely to work hard and own projects as compared to the disengaged employees. In this regard, you can expect more in regards to competence, innovation, and accuracy. When you have engaged employees, who are keen to achieve company goals, then the money follows. When employees are happy and are working in an excellent environment, they are more likely to become brand ambassadors for your company as well which translates to more business.
In the UK, 340 billion pounds are lost annually to disengaged employees. In the US, the figure is even bigger, at $550 billion. Moreover, companies with engagement programs outperform their counterparts without the programs by programs by 202%. Furthermore, companies with engagement programs are likely to enjoy 26% more in revenue annually. Companies with engaged employees should also expect an increase in business performance by 30%.
Increased Productivity. There is no doubt that engaged employees are innovative, efficient, high performers, energetic, committed and understand their role properly. On the other hand, disengaged employees are likely to have a bad attitude towards their job, colleagues, management and the company as a whole. In this regard, they put in very little in regards to production. In fact, they only do the bare minimum to fill in the timesheets.
Employees who are less engaged show little interest, passion, and motivation leading to reduced productivity. Furthermore, they call in sick more often and lack creativity. All these factors mean poor productivity. As a business owner, you don’t want to get there when there is data to back that employee engagement programs increase productivity.
Engaged employees are more likely to increase productivity by up to 25%. On the same note, unhappy employees are likely to reduce productivity by 68%. Furthermore, up to 70% of employees feel that they would do better if they realized that their efforts were appreciated more.
At the end of the day, disengaged employees are likely to cost you more than the amount you would spend on engagement programs. As a business owner, I believe having engagement programs is totally worth it. Furthermore, engaged employees are more likely to stick around for long. If employees are productive, offer excellent customer experiences and are making profits, why would you want them to leave?
According to a report on employee engagement programs, 87% of highly engaged employees are less likely to leave an organization as compared to less engaged employees. Lower turnover means a lot to the business in regards to time and money. It’s estimated that you can use up to 33% of an employee’s salary to replace them. Furthermore, the amount of time used to advertise, screen, train and get someone else on board could be used for other productive activities for the company.
