Would you like to improve the quality of life of those you serve? Improving the health, economic standing and joy of the people living in your jurisdictions takes time and strategic efforts. It requires the development and coordination of resources and activities. More important than the money you spend and the activities you perform, are the people who perform them. Their behavior and dedication can make or break your organization’s future success, making employee engagement a critical organizational metric.
When is the last time your organization quantified its employee engagement? Employee engagement is the extent employees are committed to organizational goals and values. It also measures how motivated they are to contribute to organizational success. Employee engagement is one of the most impactful success measures an organization can track. Our clients who use employee engagement scores to better manage and communicate their impact are strengthening their organizational culture and are experiencing greater productivity and organizational outcomes. Those who choose not to focus on this element of performance do not see these significant gains in improvement. Here are the top three reasons employee engagement should be on your list of annual performance measures.
- It predicts the future. Employee engagement is a leading indicator of future organizational success. There is a well-established connection between employee engagement and nine performance outcomes[1]:
- Customer ratings
- Profitability
- Productivity
- Turnover
- Safety incidents
- Shrinkage (theft)
- Absenteeism
- Patient safety incidents
- Quality (defects)
- It modifies behavior. The extent employees behave in a way consistent with the organization’s values is dependent on engagement. This summer, Measurement Resources’ researchers helped a nonprofit client quantify their employee engagement and values-based performance. Specifically, the client desired to know the extent employees were exhibiting behaviors that were client-centric, trustworthy, innovative, and collaborative. Through this work we discovered that more than 70 percent of values-based behaviors could be explained by employee engagement scores. This means the more engaged a team member, the more likely they will behave in ways reflective of the organization’s culture.
- It leads to quick impactful action. Knowing employee engagement scores allows a leader to take quick actions that will lead to desired future payoffs. Social sector outcomes measures such as decreases in recidivism and improved health outcomes often take years to see positive changes due to the length of services required. Employee engagement is something that can change quickly. The more engaged employees are and the more they exhibit the organizational values, the more likely these longer-term desired outcomes will be achieved. Knowing how employees feel about their organization will allow leaders to implement strategies to improve engagement. These improvements in engagement will lead to the bigger, longer term goals.
Organizational success is very difficult to achieve without an engaged workforce. Measuring and improving employee engagement has a significant return on investment. Engagement strategies can be relatively inexpensive, yet when implemented they can lead to significant gains in efficiency and overall impact to clients. When developing organizational goals for the upcoming year, commit to focusing and measuring employee engagement. Your staff, clients, and funders will thank you!
Seeking ways to better measure and improve employee engagement? Measurement Resources is here to help! We offer customized leadership, employee engagement and culture surveys.
Contact us today for your FREE 20-minute strategy session to learn more about how you can approach the development of your employee engagement metric!
[1] Gallup. (2013) How Employee Engagement Drives Growth. http://www.gallup.com/businessjournal/163130/employee-engagement-drives-growth.aspx
