HUMAN RESOURCES
It should come as no surprise that the more engaged an employee becomes in the job, the greater the productivity that results. Improving engagement, however, is easier said than done. A survey of 7000 executives in over 130 countries by Deloitte, a business advisory outfit, shows that raising levels of engagement by company employees continues to be a challenge. An overwhelming 85% of executives in this year’s survey ranked engagement as a top priority.

Global Human Capital Trends 2016 suggests companies should do more than offer free food or ping-pong tables. To have highly engaged employees, they must focus on driving meaning and purpose at every level. The questions executives need to be answering must go beyond “how things are done around here” to “how do employees feel about how things are done around here.”

The importance of creating engaged employees is echoed in a recent survey by Gallup, which concluded that on average, highly engaged employees outperformed disengaged employees by 22% in profitability and 21% in productivity. In light of that discovery, it is significant that the survey also found that worldwide, only 13% of employees are fully engaged in their work.

Not just lack of engagement constitutes a challenge. The lack of monitoring engagement is equally important. Deloitte flags the case of an electric utility that suffered a major outage, which could have been predicted and prevented by more carefully monitoring employee feedback and engagement data. The company now uses real-time text analysis to monitor open feedback from line workers.

So what is the recipe for higher levels of engagement? Apart from ensuring that employees have clearly defined roles, have what they need to fulfil their role, and can see how they contribute to the overall organisational purpose, business leaders should frequently evaluate employee sentiment. Annual engagement surveys are simply not enough, the report concludes. •