In a recent survey of 231 cross-industry organizations, APQC found that a majority increased employee engagement spending last year while 60% plan to increase employee engagement activities and spending over the next 12 months. While the survey throws light on how talent retention is the number one factor that’s driving this increased investment in employee engagement, what it also reveals is that despite higher allocation of resources, a majority of survey respondents said that their organization’s employee engagement program currently falls short of meeting its objectives.
Let’s not forget that according to several studies, the most engaged employees in the world are usually the most productive!
According to research done for a recent Benchmark Study by The Temkin Group, results revealed that better-performing companies have more engaged employees.
82% of employees belonging to companies with strong financial results were said to be “highly” or “moderately” engaged as opposed to 68% at under-performing companies.
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What does all of this mean?
It’s pretty easy really. The more organizations focus on engaging with their employees, the more it will help them build quality products and services as a result!
Here are six reasons that tell you WHY employee engagement is not the sole responsibility of just your HR Head!
1-Every Team has a Team Leader or a Head of Department
Every functional role or department within an organization will have a reporting head, an in-charge who is responsible for driving the team, aligning their goals and catering to the daily functional needs. If a team leader like a Head of Sales or Head of Marketing doesn’t in turn ensure that everyone on the team is engaged, he or she isn’t going to be very able to drive better results.
In a recent State of The American Workplace Report, disengaged employees are known to cost (the US market) between $483-605B each year in lost productivity!
2-Team Leaders/Heads of Departments know who they work with best!
By delegating the entire employee engagement activity to your HR head, you are allowing someone who doesn’t directly work on the team or with the team handle a very crucial aspect like employee engagement.
Unless the entire HR department has a strong organizational-wide policy with an established employee engagement strategy, delegating this task won’t necessarily make your team feel engaged, motivated and productive enough.
It is far easier and more beneficial for those who work first hand with their team to take on the responsibility, at least in part. Because, that helps them achieve – A greater sense of purpose!
3-A Greater Sense of Purpose!
A 2017 Trends in Global Employee Engagement report by Aon Hewitt found that a five-point increase in employee engagement is linked to a three-point increase in revenue generation in the following year.
Employees who have a sense of purpose and are engaged drive more revenue as proven by several studies and surveys. A greater sense of purpose is felt when their skills and overall development are aligned to their own professional goals as well as that of the company’s.
Without this, employees will just look at their work as “a job they do to pay the bills.”
4-Easier to Assess a Fall in Productivity
A team leader, the de facto in-charge knows the key focus areas and primary tasks of every member on the team, thereby allowing them to assess their team well and easily pick out and fall in productivity. One of the benefits of having every team responsible for their own engagement is- it is easier to track a fall in productivity or to pick up on signs of a disgruntled or disengaged employee much faster, because you’re working closely with them.
If HR was the only one looking into this, they may not have enough insights into the everyday tasks and functioning of respective teams or individual team members to track any early signs of distress!
5-There is such a thing as Comfort Level
While HR is expected to be approachable enough for anyone across the organizational hierarchy to reach out to, for anything under the sun, when it comes to the specific task of undertaking employee engagement activities, people who work closely with a particular set of colleagues will be more likely to open up to them when they have a problem or when they are feeling disengaged.
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6-Employees are responsible for their own engagement too!
Everybody is responsible for employee engagement, even employees themselves! What employees can do to ensure a more reliable feedback loop is created while helping their company stakeholders achieve employee engagement goals is:
- Provide feedback constantly on what is and isn’t resonating with the team
- Brainstorm creative ways (together) to enhance the overall employee experience
- Seek out more professional building and upskilling opportunities
Team building starts with Employee Engagement!
It’s never one person or one single team that’s responsible for the success of the company. It’s ALWAYS a team effort. If the product is good, marketing can book meetings and sales can sell better. Everything is interconnected!
Having one person or department take charge of a sensitive activity like employee engagement might not be the best strategy to follow!
What HR can do while framing a collaborative Employee Engagement strategy is:
- Hold team leads and heads of departments accountable for employee engagement activities
- Help them choose the right employee engagement software and ensure appropriate training of teams to optimize value from it
- Be the go-to resource for any difficulty/challenge in the process
- Support managers and heads of departments in other ways, with other useful tools or resources
Verdict
Creating an engaging and productive workplace is everyone’s job. It’s not just one person’s job. It’s not one department’s job either.
Employee engagement is not just a buzzword today. As seen in many surveys and studies, the engagement level of your employees will affect every crucial aspect of your business: from profitability to customer experience and even brand presence!
Employees who feel connected to their company are more likely to work hard and stay longer.
What are you going to do to boost your employee engagement in 2020?
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