Companies want to see efficiency and top results from every department and every employee, which means employee engagement is more important than ever. What is employee engagement? Here’s the simple definition: People want to come to work, understand their jobs, and know how their work contributes to the success of the organization. But how do you know if your employees are engaged? And is it really that important? Yes, it is! Let’s take a look at five of the most awesome benefits that come along with having engaged employees at your company.

Here are just some of the benfits of having engaged employees: 

1. Lower Turnover
2. Higher Productivity – Greater Safety
3. Company Profitability
4. Emotional Commitment – Customer Service
5. Innovation and Creativity

We'll explore each benefit and understand how it they influence the value employee engagement. You'll soon understand why engagemewnt is good for your company and it’s good for your employees. 

1) Lower Turnover 

Aside from the time involved with selecting and training a new staff member, it costs companies money when good employees leave. On average, it costs a company 6 to 9 months of an employee’s salary to replace the employee. So, for an employee making $60,000 per year, that comes out to $30,000 - $45,000 in recruiting and training costs. In the ever-changing market, jobs are less permanent and most employees are on the lookout for new opportunities. Check out this statistic:

37% of engaged employees are looking for jobs or watching for opportunities, as are 56% of not engaged and 73% of actively disengaged employees (Source: Gallup)

The greater level of employee engagement, the less likely they are to be looking for another opportunity, as their level of satisfaction at their current company keeps them motived and invested where they are. In fact, highly engaged employees are 87% less likely to leave their companies.

2) Higher Productivity – Greater Safety 

When there is a high level of engagement at a company and turnover is low, employees are able to achieve a significantly higher level of productivity. This makes sense because not only are they engaged with their jobs and the mission of the company, but additionally, they have put in the time and dedication to become experts within their positions.

 Just how much employee engagement affects productivity varies between workplaces, but the results are always significant. According to Gallup, organizations with high levels of engagement report 22% higher productivity. That percentage keeps growing, because according to research performed by the HayGroup ‘the offices with engaged employees were as much as 43% more productive’.

 One other significant benefit that comes with this increase in productivity is the decrease in work safety accidents. When employees are engaged they are attentive. Employees who scored in the bottom quartile of engagement averaged 62% more accidents than employees who were engaged. On the other hand, engaged employees were five times less likely than nonengaged employees to have a safety incident and seven times less likely to have a lost-time safety incident. 

3) Company Profitability 

Productive employees are profitable employees. Companies profit both directly and indirectly from having engaged employees. Profit goes beyond financial revenue, but that is a good place to start.

A study by Willis Towers Watson found that companies that have highly engaged employees produce 26% higher revenue per employee. 

Highly engaged employees take fewer sick days per year, and some even take fewer vacation days. If your employees are having a fulfilling work experience, they’ll feel better physically and mentally, so they may not feel the need to be out of the office as much as their less engaged counterparts. Also, as we already mentioned, they are saving the company the cost of replacing them if they were to leave.

4) Emotional Commitment – Customer Service 

When your employees are engaged at work, they put their emotions behind their commitments. Engaged employees are emotionally invested employees. As ambassadors of the company, they provide top notch customer service that retains current clients and helps to recruit more. According to the Access Perks article, 2017 Employee Engagement & Loyalty Statistics, highly engaged employees are:

• 5 times more likely to stay at work late if something needs to be done after the normal workday ends 
• more than twice as likely to help someone at work even if they don’t ask for help 
• more than three times as likely to do something good for the company that is not expected of them 
• more than five times as likely to recommend that a friend or relative apply for a job at their company (Temkin Group)  

It’s simple, really, engaged employees have a sense of company ownership, so they produce higher quality work in every capacity. 

5) Innovation and Creativity

One way to ensure having engaged employees is to have open communication and a willingness to adapt to meet company and employee needs. Your best employees are the ones who are ambitious and want to grow. Employees who have the promise of growth translate it into motivation.

59% of engaged employees say that their job brings out their most creative ideas against only 3% of disengaged employees 

Engaged employees know you will listen to their input, so they will invest their passion into creating innovative solutions to problems and better systems of operations for their teams and workplaces.

I hope this helps you to recognize even more how important it is to value employee engagement. It’s good for your company and it’s good for your employees. As you help to engage your employees in their work, they become satisfied and ambitious to see your company climb to new heights. They stay; they grow; they make your company better.

Sources

1. 2017 Employee Engagement & Loyalty Statistics
2. Benefits of Engaged Employees
3. Employee Engagement Does More than Boost Creativity
4. Employee engagement is proven to drive sustainable business performance
5. Why Employee Engagement? These 28 Research Studies Prove the Benefits