Businesses with highly engaged employees outperform the rest by 202%, according to recent surveys on employee engagement, and see a 20% increase in sales. As a result, businesses that placed an emphasis on increasing employee engagement also realized 2.5x more revenue growth than unengaged workers.

 

Source: Interact Intranet

As you can see in the graphic above, employee disengagement can significantly affect the US economy, and if it can be this damaging across the country, we can easily imagine the challenges it would give the individual business.

How to Improve Employee Engagement

Only 13% of employees are considered actively engaged, according to On The Clock, with 26% of employees being actively disengaged. Sometimes the disengaged employee is not the right fit for your business, but also, leadership may be struggling to meet the needs of their employees and encourage them to perform at their highest level. But how?

1. Make sure they know how their role aligns with the mission of your business. In fact, 80% of employees feel more engaged when their work is consistent with the business core values and mission statement. For example, if your business provides services to the baby boomers, having an employee consistently reach out to millennials could cause disinterest and therefore little engagement. Your customers know when the associate is paying them attention, and when they are grudgingly doing their job.
2. Give them a break. Literally. A common misconception seems to be that what happens at home stays at home and shouldn’t affect work life. The reality is this is simply not true, and facilitating this misconception can cause harm to both your employee engagement and success. On The Clock reports that 80% of employees would work more hours and even 60% of them would work for less money if empathy is involved, while 89% of employers believe staff leave because of money. Empathy can go a long way to not only gaining more employee engagement but getting their best work.
3. Throw away the 9-5 that’s how we’ve always done it work mentality. If there is anything we can take away from recent events, it is that the notion of we can only be productive if we are in a physical office space is a myth. Remote working can be just as productive, sometimes more productive than being in an office and even more cost-effective for your business. Not only are 82% of employees more loyal to a business who touts a remote work and flexible work strategy, but 65% of the over 55’s are actively considering remote work contracts as opposed to the traditional 9-5. Employees who have this option have more enthusiasm and are more motivated than those that don’t, and as a result, you have a highly engaged workforce.

 

Employee Engagement and Unified Communications

Employee engagement is, of course, irrelevant if they can’t communicate effectively. Poor audio connections can damage the customer experience, and in some ways, irrevocably. A survey by EPOS found that 30 minutes a day of productivity can be lost by poor audio quality. The same survey reported that 23% of respondents had dissatisfied customers and 19% lost prospective new customers as a result. Effective and reliable communications are essential to the long term success of your business, especially in this highly competitive business world we now find ourselves in. Keep your business growing with Unified Communications. Find out how here.

Read more:
Five Ways to Increase Productivity with Unified Communications
How Unified Communications Enables Remote Work
How Unified Communications can Affect Consumer Experiences