How Business Leaders Can Improve their Employees’ Engagement and Commitment for Organisational Success

Employee engagement and commitment provide insights into the efficacy and potency of the management structure and culture of an organisation. In other words, employee engagement is a strong parameter for analysing and understanding the goodness of fit and the potential for growth of an organisation.

When deciding the best strategies to deliver and capture value for a business, the manager is often required to bear in mind that the condition of the organisation’s human resource is just as relevant as the cash-flow or the strength of the balance sheet. This cannot be overemphasised, especially considering the fact that wealth is a corollary to the exertion and exchange of labour.

Therefore, if the employees are not adequately and fairly engaged, they may not resonate with the organisation’s values and philosophy or be inspired to exert their maximum strength for the actualization of the organisation’s goals and objectives.

High turnover, absenteeism, rebellion, sedition, lateness, receiving kickbacks etc are some of the symptoms of low employee engagement. When these are prevalent, they spell a doom on the organisation.

It is common knowledge that some managers are bent on achieving results at all costs instead of acknowledging and promoting the factors that motivate the employees to deliver results. Consequently, most of the organisations managed by these sets of managers lose a great deal of talents in the course of laying off and replacing their workers.

Study shows that companies with highly engaged and committed employees grow profits three times faster than their competitors; highly engaged employees are 87 percent less likely to leave the organisation and more likely to save the company some overhead cost. Conversely, disengaged employees cost organisations approximately $3500 for every $10000 in annual salary.

Incorporating structured frameworks for improving team dynamics can significantly elevate an organization’s productivity and employee satisfaction. One such effective approach is investing in the five behaviors facilitator certification, which empowers leaders to foster trust, encourage constructive dialogue, and build cohesive teams. By mastering and applying these principles, managers can create an environment where employees feel valued and motivated, leading to lasting engagement and commitment.

The following are selected cases of how improved employee engagement translates to better Organizational performance:

Case1: System Review, Leadership and Management Training Improved Employee Engagement and Performance at Intuit

Intuit, a US contact service company, recorded a significant drop in its employee engagement between 2003 and 2004; it is reported that 40 percent of the company’s employees providing customer support and related services were affected. Having conducted six-sigma process analysis, the company identified low motivational leadership as the root cause of the problem.

Solution included targeted front-line leadership training to provide supervisors with better coaching skills. The company also revived its KPIs and reward system which enabled the employees to have greater flexibility in determining how to provide the best customer service.

Within two years of implementing the strategy, engagement score increased favourably by 16 percent and there was a corresponding increase in the number of new business referrals by satisfied customers. This also had an appreciable impact on the revenue and stock of the company.

Case2: Instituting Feedback Loop minimized employee turnover at a logistic company

A UK logistic and warehousing company featured in a Greenthumb article reportedly encountered retention problems with the fresh graduates it was hiring. It is discovered that once these graduates were fully trained, many of them decided to leave and join a larger organisation.

It was observed that what the company needed was simply an opportunity for the staff to confidentially provide feedback on both their positive and negative experiences at work. This would enable the management to identify which practices to retain or improve upon.

After creating the feedback mechanism and integrating employees’ feedback in new strategies of the company, employee turnover fell from over 50 percent to below 20 percent and the level of employee engagement increased significantly.

Key points

Companies need to embrace the culture of engaging their employees to enable them stay committed and exert their utmost capacity in their job functions. They could do this by:

1. Implementing a regular assessment of employee engagement and commitment to work.
2. Encouraging information dissemination and feedback from employees
3. Regularly updating employees on the current demands of their works and other opportunities that could help them become better at their jobs.
4. Encouraging investment and data-driven policies on human resource management
5. Developing a robust job design or workflow and KPIs unique to each employee job role.