The Value of Employee Engagement

By Gerry Gibson

The need to attract and retain great talent will always be a business imperative. 2023 was a pivotal year in many critical areas that drive employee engagement, loyalty, and the overall experience. We expect the EVP metamorphosis to continue. The following illustrates how “Employee Satisfaction” (still important) and the factors that drive this have evolved over the past twenty to twenty-five years to more of an “Engagement” state.

Employee Engagement vs Satisfaction = The link between a “logical” understanding of my work and an “emotional” attachment and commitment to my job, workgroup, and company along with the associated ROI*.

Satisfied Employees

?Tend to understand their jobs and work to deliver what is expected of them

?Follow the rules and get along with their co-workers

?Listen to their supervisor and stay within established boundaries

?Don’t push the envelope and question the status quo or suggest opportunities to improve the way things are done

?Tend to wait to be told. But, then do it well

?Don’t take ownership of areas such as safety, quality, or customer relations

?Are loyal and expect to get paid fairly for it

Engaged Employees

?Strive to exceed expectations.

ROI: A significant improvement in engagement for the typical S&P 500 company is associated with an increase in revenue per employee of over $4,500.

?Work to continuously improve and effectively apply policies and procedures to eliminate waste and optimize processes. Seek to align and collaborate with others.

ROI: Companies that show high favorability scores when measuring engagement based on key “Drivers of Engagement” consistently have a TRS (Total Return to shareholders) more than 100% higher than the typical firm.

?Partner with, trust, and seek coaching from their leaders

ROI: Companies with higher employee engagement typically show significantly better safety results (>25%) in terms of Recordable Incidents and Lost Time Accident (LTA) statistics.

?Participate in problem-solving and decision-making, take ownership of their decisions, and share the credit for success with their Team Members.

ROI: Companies with high employee engagement typically have a turnover within their “top performers” (as measured by performance review ratings) 10% to 15% below the norm.

*ROI: Engagement Index Research

How are you proactively moving employees from satisfied to engaged?

We’ve recruited a team of former executives who’ve actually been in your shoes – they understand how to overcome the challenges in implementing employee experience transformations – because they’ve done it themselves.

Our teams work collaboratively with front-line employees and leaders to understand employee needs and design employee engagement into a variety of interactions. We believe the best solutions are co-designed with those who deliver it every day. Together, we bring best practices and insights from other organizations to the forefront to help you accelerate your customer experience, design, and implementation.