I thoroughly enjoyed going through the State of the Industry: Employee Wellbeing, Culture & Engagement in 2017 produced by Workforce and Virgin Pulse.
The highlights for me were:
- 78% of companies measured engagement using annual surveys
- 48% of companies found employee participation to be the biggest hurdle to having successful surveys completed
- By improving employee engagement 74% of employees were more satisfied in the workplace.
According to Human Resources Today, HR professionals know that high employee engagement correlates with enhanced productivity and performance, but many companies struggle to create adequate workplace engagement. An employee engagement survey may indicate a problem, but it won’t offer a solution. In 2017, smart HR teams will develop ways to strengthen the employee experience as a part of an arsenal of effective employee engagement tools. Company culture survey questions will also become more important as employers look for ways to reaffirm their cultural touchstones.
I do believe that if HR want to reinforce their place at the executive table they need to start understanding the hidden costs of HR to an organization (refer to my recent blog on employee engagement where the cost of a bad hire can range from 16 to 213% of an annual salary) and how they can show by using strategic tools they can contribute to the bottom line of the company by improving productivity, reducing absenteeism and having more satisfied staff.
A study by Wyatt Watson found that companies that have highly engaged employees produce 26% higher revenue per employee. The equation makes perfect sense. The more engaged your employees are the more efficient and productive they become, lowering operating costs and increasing the profit margin.