What the Best Leaders Measure For Success

You know that businesses measure the things that are important to success; revenue, growth, profit… but are you overlooking the importance of measuring employee engagement.

Employee engagement in Australia is at a 6-year low. According to research conducted by the Corporate Executive Board, it found the percentage of employees who identified as being highly engaged has fallen to 18% in 2016 (from 21% in 2009).

These findings were the result of a survey of 50,000 employees. So, as a business leader, you need to be actively working on your engagement levels. The alternative is that up to 82% of your employees may not be putting in the effort you are paying them for…

Why should you care?

Engagement is the fuel that drives your market value. In 1982, 62% of an organisation’s market value came from tangible assets. Things like machinery, inventory, facilities etc. Intangible assets, on the other hand, include intellectual property and the quality of the workforce. 20 years later, by 2002, The Brookings Institute found the source of value had completely flipped. Almost 80% of market value today comes from intangible assets. Products can be copied, more facilities can be built. But it’s the quality of your organisation’s talent, passion and commitment is nearly impossible to duplicate.

Staff turnover is costing your business a fortune. A 2016 report by recruitment firm, Hudson, reported that 44% of employees surveyed were actively seeking new opportunities, which is significantly more than in 2015, at 26%. A further 32% were open to hearing about new opportunities and only 24% were happy to stay put. The beneath-the-surface issue here isn’t your people’s jobs, it’s their work. It’s your organisations lack of recognition, poor culture and rapidly declining engagement. Furthermore, Price Waterhouse Coopers estimate the cost of staff turnover in Australia to be $3.8 billion in lost productivity and $385 million in avoidable recruitment costs every year!!

The impact of engagement on business performance is MASSIVE. For many years it has been believed there’s a lack of evidence to suggest HR initiatives and investments make a positive impact on the performance of the business. Every day there is more and more evidence mounting from hundreds of studies that we can no longer deny: The higher the level of engagement, the higher the performance of the business. The research is clear and it’s impact is global.

So, Why measure engagement?

You need a benchmark, a starting point that shows you are on the right track and your business is not on the slippery downhill slope to becoming a statistic.

Launching an engagement survey is your ESSENTIAL tool to do this. Aside from providing the reality of your team’s engagement levels, the research is clear that happy people are better workers and an effective engagement survey can:

• Recharge positivity
• Empower and give your staff a voice
• Allow you to direct your attention and budget to areas that need it the most
• Help provide a meaningful vision of the future
• Give your team a sense of purpose
• Encourage relationship building

Register for our next free webinar to learn what great managers do differently to grow profitable, sustainable businesses and high-performing teams.