Employee engagement is a crucial aspect of any business. Studies have repeatedly shown the important role engagement plays in driving productivity and profitability. Still, most businesses struggle to keep employees engaged at work.
Most firms and executives are aware of the importance of employee engagement. A GloboForce report found that over a third of businesses consider engagement to be their number one challenge, ahead of a multitude of other factors. However, despite companies’ understanding of the importance of an engaged workforce, many businesses still have a hard time achieving it. This is most clearly demonstrated in a Harvard Business Review survey of senior executives. The survey found that while 71% of respondents ranked employee engagement as very important to achieving organizational success, only 24% believed that employees at their organization were highly engaged.
The inability of most companies to engage employees is obvious when looking at surveys of employees. 70% of American workers and a staggering 87% of employees worldwide are not engaged, according to a Gallup study. The study also estimates that this figure amounts to around $7 trillion in lost employee productivity globally or about $1000 for every person on Earth.
The largest reason for this lack of engagement is poor internal communication between management and employees. For example, many businesses still use traditional communication methods like mass email lists, which employees do not find interesting or engaging, according to surveys. Rather than targeting specific employees with helpful information, these email blasts can often be irrelevant or mistimed resulting in lost productivity. Using targeted communication instead of email lists can provide employees with more informative messages and ensure they are engaged and responsive.
Another important reason for firms’ failure to engage employees is that employees simply feel unmotivated. Surveys have shown that a significant fraction of employees either don’t understand or don’t care about their company’s mission, and thus don’t put their best effort into their work. This can be solved through several methods, including gamification. Gamification involves using aspects of games (competition, leaderboards, rewards, etc) to motivate people to perform other tasks, such as exercising or being more productive. While the idea of gamification has existed for a while, many of today’s most innovative firms have been looking for new ways to apply gamification to their work environments.
Many firms are transitioning to smart software solutions like CardioLog Engage or GAMIFY to address their employee engagement challenges. CardioLog Engage is a powerful multi-channel communication tool to ensure employees get the message in the right place and at the right time. GAMIFY takes engagement to the next level through the power of psychology and gaming. Both of these solutions have already helped businesses around the world drive productivity and profitability through engagement.
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