What difference do Engaged Employees make?

First of all let’s define an engaged employee…an employee who is fully involved in and enthusiastic about their work and thus will act in a way that will further their organization’s interests.

Does this sound like an employee you would like working for you?  Is this an employee that you would want to be face-to-face with your customers, your vendors, with your other employees?  I believe that most managers would answer a resounding yes!!  And how do I find more of them??

Now think of someone who is not fully involved in and enthusiastic about their work and will not act in a way that furthers their organization’s interests…  And ask yourself the same questions regarding whether or not you would like them in your organization.

This somewhat intangible characteristic that we call engagement is something that we all look for in our employees and new hires.  The sad fact is that most of our employees are engaged when they are first hired and our actions as an organization drive it out of them.  That is right, engagement is not so much a character trait as it is a state of being that can be changed by an employee’s environment.

If you create and sustain an environment that actively engages employees, you will receive the benefits of employees that will put the interests of the organization above their own to create a culture of success.  However if their environment is neutral, or worse—disengaging—then employees place their own interests above the organization’s and success is significantly much harder to achieve.

While this may help you understand the difference between engaged and disengaged employees on an emotional level, how can we put some numbers to it?  Gallup asked these same questions and came up with some fascinating results.

1. World class organizations have 2/3 of their employees actively engaged vs average organizations that have 1/3 of their employees actively engaged.  This means that you have twice the probability of encountering an actively engaged employee when you deal with the world class organizations.

2. World class organizations show significantly better performance in attendance, turnover, quality, customer engagement, etc., which then translates into up to four times more profit than organizations at the bottom of the engagement ladder.

3. Organizations can improve their performance in many areas by up to 70% through increased employee engagement.

Are these result you would like to have?