Do I really have to bother??
If you google Employee Engagement you will get 18,600,000 results!
“So why do I need to bother with it?”
“They are paid to do a job, aren’t they?”
“I’ve tried lots of things to get my team engaged and invested heavily in trying to make them happy, but they don’t appreciate it”
“Isn’t this a load of fluffy stuff to make them happy? I am interested in the bottom line!!”
These are just some of the comments I hear from Business Owners and Managers when asked about Employee Engagement. Over the next few months, I would like to share some real information about what this actually means to you, as the owner or manager of the business and what you can do about it.
Less than 13% of the UK Workforce is class as Highly Engaged (Deloittes 2016), that is they do more than is expected of them. They love working for you, they are your raving fans and they go the extra mile.
The rest are a mixture of Disengaged (they turn up, do a good job and go home) or Highly Disengaged (they really don’t want to be there, sabotage your efforts and try to bring the rest of the team down with them).
“So why should I take this seriously, isn’t this how all businesses are?”
Well there is a significant cost to you for having a disengaged team.
For example, if your team is, let’s say 13% Highly Engaged, that means you have 87% Disengaged and Highly Disengaged. All you need to do now is the take your monthly wage cost of the second group and calculate 34% of this (Gallup 2017). That is your cost of having a disengaged team! This is due to low productivity, increased absenteeism, increased recruitment costs and poor communication.
It’s a bit like having your disengaged team swimming round in a dirty fish bowl. Traditionally you would take a few out, send them on some training, maybe some leadership courses, send them on a team building day, put a pool table in the staff canteen or arrange a night out (of which half of them don’t want to go to anyway). Once taken out, they get washed down, fired up, motivated and excited! Then what do you do? Put them back into the dirty pond.
Over the next few months, I will be sharing some of the resources to help you find out what you can do to increase your Engagement.
If you would like to find out more about this in the meantime, call Pete 07468 339 450 or email peteokeeffe@actioncoach.com
If you would like to have this information sooner, please call me, Pete on 07468 339 450 for a chat about how we can do this. Email me peteokeeffe@actioncoach.com