Look around your office. How many people do you think are 100% engaged in their work on a day-to-day basis?
Believe it or not, according to NZ statistics, less than a third of New Zealand’s workforce is fully engaged in the workplace.
This made us think. Imagine the effect on your market share if you could boost engagement levels of your own workforce to 100% while your competitor’s workforce only operated at one third.
To find out more, I spoke with Organisational Psychologist Amy Milner of Kissing Frogs, an employee engagement specialist based in Christchurch.
How was Kissing Frogs formed and for what purpose?
Deidre Graham & I were both managers at a large organisation in Canterbury and we quickly realised we held the same philosophy about how to get the best out of our greatest asset, our employees.
We were both so passionate about employee engagement and its benefits for employees and employers alike that we decided to form our own company, get out there and provide a specialised service that was not currently available to New Zealand businesses.
Isn't employee engagement just a fancy word for motivation? Can't a company achieve that by a bit of team building or a monthly touch tournament?
Motivation is about getting people to do something they may not want to, engagement is about getting them to want to do it! Employee engagement is the management of an employee's discretionary effort. Are employees just clocking in and out and checking out TradeMe, Facebook and the Hot PJ blog, or are they working throughout the day at achieving the organisation’s vision and goals?
Yeah a bit of team building, a touch tourney or drinks on Friday are all good things, but if you are not measuring how effective these initiatives are then you won't know if they are really helping with things like productivity, recruitment, retention or service levels.
As a business manager needing results, what would a fully engaged workforce mean for my company?
There are a number of areas that are effected by engagement levels, obviously employee retention is improved; research has shown that engaging your workforce can drop staff turnover by between 31-51%. Engaged employees are also 27% less likely to be absent from work.
One of the less obvious effects of engaged staff are engaged customers. Highly engaged workplaces consistently achieve 12% higher customer service scores and engaged employees sales figures are on average 50% higher than their disengaged counterparts.
An engaged employee is 65% more likely to recommend their organisation’s products and services and what's also great is that an engaged employee has a better quality of life, is less frustrated and is happier!
So what could this mean for productivity and my bottom line?
The combined effect of improving employee engagement is an increase of productivity of 18% and an increase of over 12% in profitability when compared with disengaged workplaces. We have done some maths and if you moved an averagely engaged workplace to a fully engaged workplace you would make an extra 10% earnings per employee per annum.
And how can I achieve this outcome?
The first step we take is to audit your organisation’s current situation; we identify what works, and what doesn't. We look at where you want to be and where you currently stand within your sector and nationwide.
We then work with you, your employees and your senior management team to design long-term practical solutions that encourage and sustain employee engagement throughout the organisation. Finally we assist with the implementation of these solutions.
Well, it sounds like you're going to be busy people so I better leave you to it! Thank you so much for your time Amy and we wish you all the best for the future.
If you would like to find out more information on “Kissing Frogs”, visit www.kissingfrogs.co.nz
