Highly engaged employees put in that little extra effort because they care about the organisation. They care, because they feel someone is caring for them.

 

Research and practice both suggest that employee engagement may be considered the primary enabler of the successful execution of any business strategy and achievement of business objectives.  Having an engaged workforce is now seen as a core competitive advantage for an organisation, linked to higher levels of talent retention, innovation, employee activation, and improved employee satisfaction and customer service. 

As organisations strive to improve performance, employees working willingly at their optimum provide an advantage in achieving efficient, high quality services. Thus, it has become essential for organisations to measure their level of employee engagement in order to implement initiatives aimed at developing and sustaining high levels of engagement. 

Unfortunately, many studies suggest that only around 30% of employees are “engaged”. Another 50% are “disengaged”, meaning they do the bare minimum required. More worrying is that approximately 20% of employees are “actively disengaged,” meaning they are hard at work tearing down others and the organisation. This is also supported by results of a recent survey¹ conducted by KPMG’s People and Change Advisory team, showing that 50% of HR professionals believe that their organisation’s employee engagement could be better. 

Given the strong link between employee engagement and business success, it has now become mission critical for organisations to make employee engagement a priority. In order to successfully achieve this, organisations must first measure and take stock of their current engagement levels. Whether an organisation is trying to improve engagement or stem the tides of disengagement, it's important to know where the company stands, because trying to solve a problem that one is unaware of, is all but impossible.

If an organisation truly wants to improve organisational performance through employee engagement, then they must go one step further and also obtain an understanding of what is driving engagement/disengagement levels in their organisation. By looking at the drivers related to engagement, organisations will get a clearer picture of and define what is truly working and what can be improved. This, in turn, supports developing an engagement strategy that generates more tangible results.

Through this, organisations will be in a better position to make changes to transform their weaknesses into strengths. This will prevent organisations from succumbing to their worst enemy: stagnation, and take a step towards staying dynamic, current and relevant. Organisations will also be able to track data over time and determine whether improvement implementations are truly affecting desired areas for change. Employee engagement is not a short term initiative but a process that takes time and effort to develop, improve, and sustain. 

Through their Employee Engagement Plus Index, the KPMG People and Change Advisory Team supports organisations in taking stock, and measuring their current engagement levels through an online questionnaire answered by employees. 

 

www.kpmg.com/mt/peopleandchange

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¹Survey conducted during the FHRD’s Annual Conference (2017)