Whether you are a small local firm or an international company, employee satisfaction can often make or break your business. According to reports by Forbes, employee turnover and general dissatisfaction are at their all-time high in the past 10 years.
This has led to talent erosion and a very cynical look at the corporate market by fresh graduates and job candidates. One of the best ways to amend for that in your own company is to invest in employee engagement activities and employment benefits. Before you do, however, let’s take a look at some great reasons as to why this is a good idea.
1. Enhanced Company Image
As a single piece of the industry puzzle, your company is constantly under the microscope. Your competitors are bound to keep an eye out for changes in your reputation and general public reception of your brand.
While you should do the same and keep a close watch on how the industry looks like, employee engagement can do wonders for your own brand’s image. Employee satisfaction and word of mouth travel fast if the office staff is simply happy to be working in your company rather than somewhere else.
2. Greater Retention Rates
People are bound to leave your company from time to time due to numerous personal reasons. However, these reasons don’t have to include your lack of engagement and attention towards their professional development.
The CEO of PickWriters: “Employee retention is built during the entire tenure of your employees. Trying to salvage years of bad experiences is nigh impossible no matter what benefits you may offer at the eleventh hour.” Pay attention to your employees’ professional needs from early on to organically build up their spirits to say with your company.
3. Healthy Internal Culture
Your office staff will always gossip about this or that over lunch and coffee – that’s perfectly normal. However, vendettas, bad blood and a general lack of communication within your company should be avoided at all costs.
By introducing employee engagement activities such as seminars and team building, you will push your staff towards a more team-oriented mindset. This, in turn, leads to a much more friendly and helpful internal culture which emphasizes cooperation rather than competition.
4. Lower Absence Rates
One of the best indications of employee dissatisfaction is their growing daily absence. People who love their jobs are bound to show up at work no matter how difficult of a day they might expect. For that reason, employee engagement is more than beneficial in terms of motivating your staff members.
You can achieve absence rates close to zero if you show enough care towards their satisfaction and professional development throughout the year. Make sure to vary up the activities to include small things like pizza parties or movie nights to more skill-based events such as workshops and brainstorming sessions.
5. Better Customer Servicing
The way you treat your office staff will likely reflect in the way they treat your stakeholders – mainly the end-users of your products. While not everyone on your staff will service customers directly, the consumers will be able to tell how someone feels about their work in general.
Employee engagement activities can add up to your staff’s content with their employment, leading to a much better quality of customer servicing. In turn, this will further spread positive word of mouth about your brand and company culture among the general population. This type of advertisement is almost impossible to pull off without directly including the customers, something which you will unavoidably do through their servicing.
6. Brand Value Growth
Even though you may not want to sell your company today, tomorrow or in the next 10 years, it’s something worth exploring nevertheless. Brand value is a commodity in today’s age of dozens upon dozens of companies operating in the same niche and industry.
Employee engagement and subsequent rise in their satisfaction will speak volumes about the way you run things in-house. This will ensure that potential partners and investors knock on your door from time to time with offers about mutually beneficial cooperation. Keep in mind that your brand’s value can rise and fall each fiscal year and it’s something that your employees have a direct impact on based on their satisfaction and overall performance.
7. Leadership Potential
Lastly, satisfied employees will not only want to renew their contracts but also advance within your ranks. This can lead to amazing leadership opportunities being built within your walls without hiring senior members from outside.
Cater to your newly-acquired talents just as you do for the managerial staff members. Each member of your company is a part of a whole and if they feel like that, they will want to contribute more and more as a result. Building in-house leadership for tomorrow is one of the best and arguably the most useful parts about employee engagement across the board.
There is a lot you can do to make your employees comfortable with their professional decision to stay with your company. Talk to everyone on your staff about the types of activities they would like to participate in, as well as their professional goals and aspirations.
Find a middle ground which will cater to everyone equally and ensure that teamwork and ongoing development remain as high as possible. While the change won’t come overnight, the fact that you are thinking about what you can do for your staff members is enough of an indication that things are starting to turn for the better.
By Kristen Savage, Freelance Writer
Kristin Savage nourishes, sparks and empowers using the magic of a word. Along with pursuing her degree in Creative Writing, Kristin was gaining experience in the publishing industry, with expertise in marketing strategy for publishers and authors. Now she had found herself as a freelance writer. She observes with a special interest how the latest achievements in media and technology help to grow readership and revenue and shares her opinion.