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How engaged are your employees? Gallup says it matters!
By Lauren | September 1, 2008
It’s Labor Day, the day when the summer traditionally comes to an end, kids get ready to go back to school, and the rest of us face a return to the daily grind. However, Labor Day was originally intended to honor working men and women, so this is a good day to ask just how engaged your employees are in your company’s business.
Please notice that I said “engaged,” not “happy.” Research by Gallup (the firm that brings you all those political polls) shows that companies whose employees are really engaged in their work have happier, more satisfied customers. In our highly competitive market happy customers mean long-term success, so it’s important to get your employees engaged and keep them that way.
Fortunately, Gallup has published a marvelous book, First, Break All the Rules, describing its research on employee engagement and explaining how employers can foster a high level of employee engagement in the workplace. The book contains some surprises (for example, it’s important for employees to believe that they have a best friend at work), and a lot of sound advice on how to recruit, hire, and keep employees who’ll be so engaged in what they do for you that they’ll satisfy your customers every time.
Happy Labor Day!
Topics: Business Ethics, Lauren Recommends, customer relations |
September 2nd, 2008 at 7:25 am
I work for a company who specialises in reward and recognition, incentive programs and corporate gifting. Gallup is definitely our bread and butter, fro what we’ve seen in our work with more than 1300 corporate clients over in Australia is that happy people = happy profits. At the end of the day people are more committed if they feel acknowledged on a regular basis. It’s often about being personalised, so employees really feel their contribution to the organisation makes a difference. In Australia $32.7 Billion is lost on disengaged and unhappy employees who are as a result unproductive.We’ve added to Gallup’s research and looked at motivating factors behind employee productivity. We’ve written a Free book on it, it’s short and snappy. check it out http://corporate.redballoondays.com.au/go/knowledge-bank/book-of-answers
September 2nd, 2008 at 7:26 am
32.7 billion per year i meant to say- that’s big for our economy!
September 5th, 2008 at 10:18 am
Just to pick up on Kate’s second point, according to The Economist, the current size of our economy in Australia is just over one trillion Australian dollars (probably about 900 billion USD).
That means that the 32.7 billion figure quoted by Kate would put the estimate of lost productivity due to employee disengagement at just over three per-cent of the Australian economy. That is a heck of a lot to lose in lost productivity.