Creating a culture of engaged employees has become a topic of much discussion lately.
From chamber luncheons to business meetings to LinkedIn articles, everyone seems to be looking for the magic bullet to engage employees.
This is a topic that companies definitely need to address. Especially since a recent study by Dale Carnegie revealed that,
26% of the US workforce is Actively Disengaged and an additional 45% are Disengaged.
But what is the secret sauce to employee engagement? And what is the cost of not engaging employees?
Motivating Employees
To effectively create a culture of engaged employees, it’s important to understand the true motivating factors of your employees.
A recent blog post from Talent Culture, What Truly Motivates Employees, offers a great perspective on the motivations and needs of today’s workforce.
The article focuses on the soft factors that are still often missing from management’s view of what motivates employees, including:
- Appreciation of work done
- Feeling of being in on things
- Sympathetic help with personal problems
Cost of Disengaged Employees
Don’t be discouraged if your company is struggling to figure out how to motivate and engage employees, you are not alone.
According to the Global Human Capital Trends 2015 report published by Deloitte University Press,
“87% of organizations cite culture and engagement as one of their top challenges.”
However, if your company is struggling with employee engagement, you have probably experienced some unexpected costs as a result.
Talent Culture also identifies 3 Unexpected Costs of Poor Employee Engagement, which highlight some areas you may want to review when discussing your employee engagement strategy.
- Disengaged customers
- Safety incidents
- Absenteeism
It is vital for organizations to understand the importance of culture in creating an engaged workforce.
Employees are looking for more than just a paycheck and benefits. They want to be a vital and appreciated part of the organization with opportunities to be involved in helping the company grow and work with managers who care about them as individuals.
The cost of disengaged employees will ultimately impact the company’s bottom line through poor customer service, lost productivity and churn.
