With the recent surge in business overheads and the cost-of-living crisis firmly on our doorsteps, business leaders up and down the UK are focussing on developing their long-term survival strategy.
The UK job retention scheme cumulatively saw an unprecedented 11.7 million jobs furloughed between April 2020 and November 2021; allowing employees time to reflect on their careers and workplace enjoyment. As businesses now move into a post-pandemic world, a very different workplace landscape has emerged, one of hybrid/remote working and Teams meetings which are now an integral part of daily life. However, employers are still battling post-covid issues, one of which is systemic throughout the UK workforce – employee disengagement.
The effects of employee disengagement cannot be underestimated.
Disengagement can have huge consequences on workplace culture, customer satisfaction/service, revenues, and, ultimately, the future of any business. For example, employee disengagement costs the UK economy £340 billion/year.
According to Gallup, companies that have an engaged workforce outperform their competitors by a staggering 147% and highly engaged teams have proved to operate at 21% greater profitability than their counterparts. Clearly, there is a correlation between an engaged workforce and healthy business profits.
Developing your employee engagement strategy in a post-pandemic world is crucial for the future survival and success of your business.
The pandemic has shifted workplace perceptions for the foreseeable future. The effects of disengagement will cost employers 18% of their employee’s annual salary. So, investing in developing your employee engagement strategy can significantly reduce these lost profit margins.
A well-developed employee engagement strategy can also help reduce absenteeism within your organisation. A Workforce Institute study showed that absenteeism accounted for 1.2% of an employee’s salary. However, engaged employees were found to miss 53% fewer days due to health-related issues which also reduced overall levels of absenteeism by 41%. So, clearly hiring the right employees and keeping them engaged has wide-reaching implications throughout your entire workforce.
Putting yourself in the shoes of your employees and looking objectively and holistically at your business can have huge benefits. Try starting from the ground up. Simply putting in the initial effort to create a positive employee onboarding experience can have drastic long-term effects on your business’ performance. For example, employees who have experienced a negative onboarding are twice as likely to look for other career opportunities. If we were to put a monetary figure on how much recruiting new employees costs an employer, a Glassdoor study stated that, on average, it costs £3,000 and 27.5 days of time. Poor onboarding only exasperates the issue by making recruiting a regular process. Compare that to engaged employees, who are 87% less likely to leave their current place of work with their employers experiencing 59% less staff turnover.
Creating a conducive working environment within an organisation and keeping employees engaged is key. The recent Global Human Capital Trends survey showed that 79% of survey respondents believed nurturing a feeling of ‘belonging’ was important to their organisation’s success in the next 12-18 months and 93% of those surveyed agreed that “belonging” drives organisational performance.
If you want to create employee engagement, consider the following questions:
Is your employee reward structure suitable for the new world of working? Do you even have one?
How can you improve your overall employee experience?
Are there any barriers stopping your teams communicating and collaborating with one another effectively?
How do your employees feel about their job roles?
Is the environment inclusive to all employees?
How can you enable your employees to achieve their aspirations?
What do your employees expect from the leadership team?
