Why engaged employees are worth their weight in gold

In Japan, a 310-mile super-conveyor belt has been proposed. Connecting Tokyo and Osako, the ‘Auto-flow Road’, which has a projected cost of ¥80 billion, is intended to address a 14% delivery capacity shortfall, running 24 hours a day and carrying up to a ton of cargo at a time.

The proposal – which has no timeline in place for construction – is not just the latest brainchild of the country that brought the world the bullet train and is set to launch the first superconducting magnetic levitation passenger train line in 2027. With the potential to carry out the work of 25,000 truck drivers, Japan’s proposal is a necessary response to a problem that is particularly acute there but felt throughout the developed world: labour shortages.

Globally, two-thirds of companies experienced a labour shortage in the 12 months to February 2024, according to a report by the Netherlands-based recruitment firm Randstad. It identified two core factors in workforce availability: the number of people of working age in a population, and their willingness or ability to seek employment. In different parts of the world, different factors play into this: Europe's working-age population is steadily decreasing; since 2010, the US has seen a 3% decline in working-age people who are in employment; and the UK's workforce is declining in part because of poor mental health.

So, what now?

All this is enough to make managers and HR professionals throw up their hands in despair. After all, what can we do? The sunlit uplands of AI taking on the work that your average human employee is unable or unwilling to do are distant to say the least. We, as businesses, don’t have the power to improve health outcomes or magic engaged employees out of thin air overnight.

Which leaves just one option: holding on to the workers we do have by decreasing employee turnover and improving employee retention. But at a time when any skilled employee knows that they can pick and choose what job they take based on the employee experience, job satisfaction and workplace culture on offer, this is easier said than done.

The key to attracting and retaining each valuable skilled worker lies in employee engagement, a concept that has become mainstream in recent years. But what exactly is employee engagement, and how do you create a work environment that results in engaged employees?

What is employee engagement?

According to the CIPD, while numerous definitions of employee engagement have emerged over the past decade, the best way to identify engaged employees is through the way they approach their work.

Engaged employees – in contrast to actively disengaged employees and those experiencing employee burnout – will show:

• Vigour (energy, resilience and effort)
• Dedication (for example, enthusiasm, inspiration and pride)
• Absorption (concentration and being engrossed in one’s work)

Which all sounds very positive – but why exactly is employee engagement important? According to a 2023 article in Forbes, employee retention and employee engagement are inextricably linked. In 2022, 50 million employees quit their jobs, while just 32% reported high levels of engagement at work.

“The worst part is these two things feed into each other,” the writer explains. "As engagement lowers, employees are more likely to quit. And as friends and co-workers leave for better opportunities, remaining employees get inundated with extra responsibilities, which often leads to stress, burnout and disengagement."

How to get there

So, what can HR professionals do to create a workplace culture that supports employee engagement, job satisfaction, high employee morale and ultimately an engaged workforce and a higher degree of organisational success?

An employee survey might be a good place to begin. Such an engagement survey acts as a stock-take of current employee engagement levels, measuring employee satisfaction, employee happiness, team engagement and employee motivation. Gallup’s Q12 survey provides a good blueprint for an employee engagement survey. Employee feedback such as this provides a starting point and demonstrates the strengths and weaknesses of the workplace culture and employee experience and can form the basis of a roadmap leading to improved engagement throughout the workforce.

What next? However disheartening the results of an engagement survey might be, the worst action an employer can take is no action, according to Gallup. “An engagement survey is only the first step to motivating employees. If you implement a survey with no follow-up, engagement will likely decrease.

To gain positive momentum and increase engagement, you must ask for feedback, do something about it and continually share results.”

Communication, communication, communication

With your engagement survey having taken place, you know how your organisation’s employee experience is perceived. You might not like the answer, but the channel of communication between employer and employee is now open, and it’s essential to keep that conversation – and employee engagement – open.

Communicating with employees should never be a one-way street; it’s not simply a question of ‘putting stuff out there’. Such a top-down approach is counterproductive and more likely to result in disengaged employees. At Wardour, we worked with our clients to find innovative, fun employee engagement ideas to keep the communications channel open in both directions – whether that’s through internal videos, microsites, apps or even games. And measuring effectiveness of these engagement initiatives at every stage is crucial.

Employee recognition is another key factor in boosting employee morale. Celebrating people’s achievements will improve job satisfaction, while ongoing opportunities for professional development will reduce the likelihood of an employee seeking alternative employment.

Employee happiness and engagement can be further supported through what a Harvard Business Review article describes as connecting “what employees do to what they care about”. It recommends revising your organisation's mission statement to align with employee values; demonstrating how an employee's work is related to the organisation's purpose; and encouraging the establishment of employee resource groups, which bring together individuals with similar backgrounds or interests.

Engagement strategies such as these, applied consistently over time, are likely to reduce staff turnover and lead to more satisfied, engaged workers. But that’s just the beginning: engaged employees are far more likely to become champions for your organisation and employee advocacy has shown to be highly effective in boosting brand awareness. According to IT company Cisco, quoted in HR Magazine, social media posts by employees generate eight times as much engagement as their employer’s posts do.

So, focus on creating an engaged workforce, and you might just not have to build that 300-mile conveyor belt after all.