When you’re engaged, it permeates everything you do with purpose, energy and excitement. This is true no matter whether we’re talking about an activity or hobby, a relationship or, why not, work. Being engaged means more involvement and satisfaction, and who doesn’t want that for their career?
What is employee engagement?
Employee engagement is one of the most essential qualities of the relationship between any organization and its employees. It plays a crucial role in any organization development because it stimulates employees and keeps them interested in their work. An engaged employee is enthusiastic about their work, having the right attitude and taking positive actions to enhance the company’s interests and reputation.
An organization who efficiently engages its employees acknowledges their potential and offers them the proper conditions and motivation to give their best each day, to partake in the company’s goals and values and to contribute to its success. Employee engagement is a fundamental concept that rests upon integrity and trust. It’s a two way street of commitment and communication between a company and its members, that focuses on organizational and individual productivity, performance and well-being. It can be measured, varying from poor to great. It can also be tended to and greatly improved.
The concept first appeared in management theory in the 1990s and it flourished as a practice in the management of human resources and of internal communications in the following decade.
Nowadays, the term “employee engagement” has become equivalent with expressions like “employee satisfaction” and “employee experience”. This says a lot about the way employees feel at work. Many of them have a higher predisposition to get disengaged and distracted due to a poorly applied or a non-existing employee engagement program.
Why is employee engagement so important?
According to gallup.com “a staggering 87% of employees worldwide are not engaged. Many companies are experiencing a crisis of engagement and aren’t aware of it.”
This is highly unwanted because a scanty engagement means unproductive employees and deficient performance of the whole. In addition, un unengaged employee has the potential to disrupt efficiency and bring down coworkers’ morale or waste time doing other things unrelated to their work. On the other hand, an engaged employee is most likely to know what is expected from them, takes the opportunity to do their best every day and has good performance. They cooperate to strengthen and expand the organization they are a part of and look for better avenues to achieve outcomes.
So, as pointed out, this engagement process is vital for any company that wants to outperform its competitors because a highly engaged workforce can make the difference between an organization that prospers and one that fails to grow.