Is Employee Engagement Essential?

In the startup world, it is the “norm” for employees to be playing double (if not triple) duty. With limited budgets and resources, you need to do more with less. You also want to protect your biggest investment - your people - from churn and disconnection. The best way to accomplish this is to keep your employees engaged. 

What is engagement?

Gallup succinctly defines employee engagement as the involvement and enthusiasm of employees in their work and workplace. This can be a combination of many things: the ability and willingness of employees to go above and beyond, their intent to stay at the organization, their understanding and enthusiasm for the company mission and goals, and the recognition they receive for their work. 

Why it matters

Unfortunately, in 2024 employee engagement in the U.S. fell to a 10-year low, with only 31% of employees engaged and 17% actively disengaged. When employees are less engaged, absenteeism and turnover increases, while quality decreases. According to Gallup, highly engaged employees result in 10% more customer loyalty, 14% higher productivity, 78% less absenteeism, and 23% higher profitability (among other things).

Engaging employees

The best way to fix your engagement is to first figure out what is wrong. Change only comes if there is a willingness to receive feedback and an awareness of the problem.

There are many ways to gauge your levels of engagement from the Lifelabs Learning's method CAMPS to the Gallup Q12 method to the eNPS. Sending a survey or having a neutral party perform 1:1 interviews is your best shot at diagnosing the weaknesses in your organization and moving in a positive direction.

Once you’ve found those weaknesses, it is important to follow through on improving them. It is widely accepted that all organizations should:

• Give employees certainty and security by setting a clear, compelling direction that empowers each employee

• Ensure that direction is in line with your company principles and values

• Engage in open and honest communication

• Maintain a focus on career growth and development

• Recognize and reward high performance

• Provide employee benefits that demonstrate a strong commitment to employee well-being

If you’re feeling like your culture is broken, your employees aren’t putting their best work forward, or there’s a general lack of enthusiasm in your organization, Kindred Works can help. Let us take a pulse on your team, prioritize your action items, and execute projects that push you towards better business outcomes. We can help increase your engagement, which should increase your overall success.

You can reach out directly via email at info@kindred-works.co or fill out this form.