Does employee engagement matter or is it just another buzz phrase? Whether you call it employee engagement, employee loyalty, employee involvement, or retention, I believe it’s a critical aspect of managing your business. Performance is directly related to your state of mind. You can engineer away challenges, create process maps, and streamline processes, but you will only uncover the “above and beyond” performance when employees are passionate about the success of your business.
I was recently reminded of the importance of employee engagement by two colleagues; their stories follow.
One colleague is an exceptional business developer, with a long track record of annual growth. In recent months, she has begun to contemplate a new career direction. While she still loved her company, her focus had shifted to new possibilities. In fairly short order, her sales dropped off significantly even though her hours were unchanged. Simply put, she lost her focus while assuming a defensive element of protecting current clients, rather than investing in a long business cycle to generate new clients.
The other colleague is also considering a career transition, as he perceives that his future upward mobility may be limited. It’s just in the early stages but the distraction of a career transition and related activities are already having an impact on his performance. It’s just little things but they add up to reduced performance, which may impact his appraisal and could even have some impact on his management.
These are not disgruntled employees, just individuals who have unconsciously become a bit less engaged in the business. The impact grows markedly when an employee is disgruntled. It can be challenging to measure the direct impact but I believe engaged employees are a critical success factor for any business, even for solopreneurs.
Employee engagement – wouldn’t you rather have happy employees?
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