What are the Benefits of Employee Engagement for Businesses?

When it comes to running an effective and thriving business, organisations must acknowledge that in order to stay at pace with the new world of work, it’s now essential to put employees first - and this starts with employee engagement.

So, what exactly is employee engagement, you ask?

While the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) claims there’s no common understanding of employee engagement (as it will look different from business to business), employee engagement - at its core - describes the level of dedication and enthusiasm an employee feels towards their job.

Employee engagement is important because it acts as a key indicator for how satisfied existing employees are in their roles while also giving business leaders the strategic insights they need to sustain or improve processes to keep employee engagement high.

Now, how else does employee engagement benefit businesses?

The benefits of employee engagement

Although the benefits of engaged and happy employees are endless, we're going to talk more about our top five that we think have the most impact.

Increases productivity 

Contrary to popular belief, employee engagement is measured by consistent and concrete workplace behaviour rather than some trivial or abstract feeling.

This means that from the get-go, in order to be successful, organisations need to make sure that their employee engagement strategies set clear expectations among employees while providing them with the tools and support they need to do their work well on a day-to-day basis.

How can you be sure your strategies are working? Well, the proof is - quite literally - in the pudding, with research showing that engaged employees are up to 17% more productive!

Improves employee retention 

According to Microsoft’s 2021 Work Trend Index, 41% of people are likely to consider leaving their jobs for a role that feels more worthwhile.

While many people feel this high level of potential turnover has been brought on by the pandemic, ultimately leading to the Great Resignation, it’s important to keep in mind that a Gallup study also showed that 51% of employees were already planning to leave their current jobs - and that was back in 2017!

Reasons for moving on included, but were not limited to, lack of recognition and lack of opportunities for growth.

This tells us that employees join organisations with a certain level of expectation and desire to progress, so when HR and business leaders put work into a company culture that promotes happy employees and an engaged workforce for the long term, they’ll succeed in reducing employee turnover and improving retention. 

It's cost-efficient 

Speaking of improved employee retention, did we mention that an effective employee engagement strategy not only saves you from losing your top talent, but it also saves your organisation money?

Well, it’s true!

Highly engaged teams are naturally more high performing than those teams with disengaged employees. So much so, that highly engaged teams actually show up to 21% greater profitability on their bottom line.

This is because highly engaged employees show up to work each day with purpose and passion, ready and willing to help their organisation succeed because their organisation wants them to succeed as well.

Pair these points with the money organisations are saving from employee turnover costs (i.e. onboarding and recruiting), and it’s really a no-brainer to add, update, or improve employee engagement strategies moving forward.

Boots employee morale

When organisations implement the correct employee engagement strategies, it’s inevitable that they’re going to simultaneously boost employee morale.

The key word here, however, is the word correct.

While many organisations need to test which employee engagement methods work best for their staff, the consensus seems to be that there are a few core ways to boost employee morale - no matter the industry - including:

• Employee recognition: to let employees know their valued
• Opportunities for feedback: to keep an open and transparent line of communication between managers and staff
• Team building exercises: to encourage employees to value their colleagues and find a sense or belonging and support within their teams
• Flexibility: to allow a better work-life balance for employees at every level (e.g remote or hybrid working options

Empowers Employees

Perhaps one of the most important benefits of employee engagement for businesses is how the right strategies empower employees. Employees want their voices to be heard so they can help contribute to objectives, initiatives, and change within their organisations.

To this end, when HR works with upper management to create opportunities for career development and growth (e.g. in-house training, continuing education courses, and internal promotions), they’re communicating with employees that what they contribute to the organisation really matters.

This includes employees being asked to speak or lead department meetings, delegating essential tasks to other members of the team, or soliciting feedback for improving company processes. That being said, when employees feel this high level of value they’re, unsurprisingly, all the more likely to remain loyal to the organisation and it’s success for the long haul.

We hope that this blog has shed some light on how the right level of employee engagement will bring with it an abundance of benefits to your organisation; driving business success through skilled, knowledgeable, and happy employees.

A high level of employee engagement isn’t just ‘nice to have’ anymore, it’s critical to organisational success.

Learn how to better retain your organisation’s top talent with a 100% online professional CIPD HR qualification. Start today and get your free CIPD course guide.