There is a great difference between employee satisfaction and employee engagement. However, many corporate leaders assume that all is well as long as their employees are happy with their pay and conditions of work. The truth, nevertheless, is that a company that is not committed in achieving employee engagement hardly goes anywhere.
Getting a happy workforce is easy enough. The hard work comes in when you have to derive real commitment from the employees. It is not all about performance of their daily duties and delivery of expected results; it is inspiring the employees to go the extra mile with the welfare of the company in mind without having to be asked to do it.
Higher Customer Satisfaction
There’s no gainsaying that an engaged employee provides better services marked by higher quality and productivity. They will be more willing to ensure that the company’s customers are happy and satisfied with the services. Happy customers will always return, often with others. In the end, the company not only achieves its sales objectives, but also may very easily surpass them.
Higher sales result in higher returns for the shareholders. On the other hand, disengaged workers will not care whether the company retains its customers or loses them. They will be more mindful of their paycheck.
Less Spending on Work-Related Problems
Organizations with a disengaged workforce often have to spend time and money in solving work-related problems including poor performance, turnover and poor morale.
In addition, disengaged employees brings with them stress-related issues that easily lead to alcoholism and drug abuse and resultant ailments including heart diseases and cancer, which the company has to pay for in terms of benefits and compensation. Since what happens at the workplace usually finds its way home, cases of domestic violence are likely to arise.
Attracting the Best Employees
Highly skilled and talented workers are always looking for companies that recognize their worth not by paycheck alone, but also through real engagement. They like to feel that they are a part of organizations that affords them a chance to fully exploit their potential in both efficiency and creativity.
Furthermore, nobody wants to keep moving from company to company in search of better working conditions. Therefore, organizations that engage their workers achieve far much higher retention of talented employees than their counterparts who do not.
Bottom-line
Most workers would like to give their very best to their employers. However, not all of them know how they can do it. The situation is worsened by company leaders, who assume that a good pay is all an employee needs and they, therefore, lose the chance of fully exploiting their employees’ abilities.
In today’s workplace, there is a rising need for flexibility. Workers who are given more freedom and room for creativity deliver much better results than their counterparts, who have to stick to set rules and objectives.
The largest numbers of workers have no problem working at odd hours, carrying their workplace engagements home, or being on-call anytime of the day, any day of the week. All they want is their employer’s appreciation and engagement in the organization’s affairs.
