Companies that want to be more effective and productive need to place a higher priority on employee engagement. Failure to do so typically results in a combination of poor performance and high turnover rates.

There are many benefits to focusing on employee engagement. Here are six of them:

1. It Retains Your Talent

One of the primary benefits of high employee engagement is the retention of valuable talent. When employees feel a strong bond with their employer and identify with the employer’s purpose and mission, they are more likely to remain in the company’s employ.

Additionally, satisfying work and a clear development plan will produce a sense of loyalty that a pay raise will never be able to achieve.

Employee retention is important for several reasons. For one thing, employee turnover is expensive. It costs a lot of money to recruit new talent and employee onboarding can be a tedious process. Turnover can also result in lower productivity, which leads to lower profits.

However, a high rate of employee retention will help a company hire the best employees because people are attracted to a happy, engaged workplace.

2. It Boosts Productivity

Employees who like their job will be more productive than employees who have an ax to grind. This is extremely important to a business because productivity is one of the driving forces in making a profit.

According to Gallup, the per-share profit of companies with actively engaged employees averages four times as much as their competitors.

Employee engagement has a positive ripple effect. When employees are more engaged, they are more productive, which leads to better profits.

Better profits encourage business owners and managers to become more engaged. This will further engage their employees, and the ripple effect continues.

3. The Customer Experience

For a company to be truly successful, it must have fully engaged employees and happy customers. Not only will fully engaged employees lead to happy customers, but happy customers will also result in more fully engaged employees.

However, companies should never make the customer experience more important than the employee experience because the employees can make or break the company.

The importance of positive employee experience is easy to see for frontline employees. After all, they are the ones who interact directly with customers.

However, it is equally important for employees who work behind the scenes to be engaged because they support the efforts of the frontline employees. Their actions also contribute to the customer experience.

4. Higher Employee Investment

Employees who have a high level of engagement will be more invested in their jobs and projects. They will exercise a higher level of care and will take pride in their work. They will also be more loyal to the company and will voluntarily act as a company ambassador.

Engaged employees also have a lower rate of absenteeism. They feel like the company depends on them, and they don’t want to let anyone down.

On the other hand, disengaged employees are costly because they are not motivated enough to show up. Production will be lost unless other employees take up the slack.

5. Better Communication

Communication is critical in the workplace because it allows a company to be productive and operate efficiently. It’s especially important when there is a level of danger associated with the tasks being performed.

Happy and engaged employees are more likely to participate in a group discussion and share their ideas for making improvements. Disengaged employees are more likely to remain quiet and criticize the process.

Good communication within a company typically results in new ideas and better methods. However, it is important that employees feel free to communicate upwardly, downwardly, and laterally.

Employees feel empowered when their supervisors listen to their ideas and provide feedback. Just as important, employees want to hear from their supervisors and feel like they are part of the team.

6. It Creates Trust

Employees who feel like their wellbeing is cared about will come to trust their employer and supervisors. This is extremely important because employees who trust each other are able to work together as a team rather than as individuals.

Their efforts will be more collaborative and less confrontational. Here are some tips on how a manager or supervisor might gain the trust of an employee through better engagement:

• Make sure you are dependable—do what you say you will do.
• Be approachable and friendly.
• Show support for your team members even when they make a mistake.
• Be considerate of others and their feelings.
• Be willing to listen to others, and respect their opinions, ideas, and perspectives.

Don’t Neglect Engagement

There are many benefits to placing a high priority on employee engagement, including the retention of valuable employees. Employees who feel engaged are more likely to continue their employment and remain loyal to the company.

Employee engagement also results in higher productivity, which translates to higher profits. Customer lifetime value is also higher when customers deal with engaged employees.

Employees who are highly engaged are also less likely to miss work. They take pride in what they do and do not want to let anyone down. They also act as excellent ambassadors for the company.

Engaged employees also communicate better, which results in better ideas and improved methods. Finally, engaged employees feel that they can trust their employers and are more accepting of change.