Employee engagement is critical to companies that are interested in success and sustainability. Shown below are a few Gallup statistics that clarify why engagement is good for the company.
Engagement is also good for employees, although it is difficult to find many statistics, a few benefits that are discussed include: improved on the job safety; improved health; better home life and relationships; better career opportunities.
Statistics Courtesy of Gallup
Engagement is often thought of as an organizational attribute. As the statistics above show, organizations with high engagement are more successful and so we tend to measure engagement at an organizational or group level. However, engagement is a personal attribute of every employee that is present every day of the year, not just during annual engagement surveys.
Attentive leaders can detect and act on the early signs of lowering engagement on an individual level. The list below is neither complete, nor accurate for each individual. Rather, it is to be considered a wakeup call to leaders to realize that they can and should take notice of and act on early warning signs leading to dis-engagement. The reference articles noted at the end of this article provide a few more items for the list as well as further clarification.
Early Signs of Dis-Engagement
*Speaking up is an interesting one. It should be an obvious first sign if someone complains about something – but often the delivery is subtle, so the complaint may be overlooked even thought it could be a precursor to a bigger issue.
Leaders play an oversized role in employee engagement. Poor leadership inevitably leads to low engagement and potentially dis-engagement. On the other hand, a leader that knows the person well, notices changes, cares and acts on the signals can help employees head off dis-engagement before it becomes a critical issue. In fact, noticing and acting on changes in behaviour will strengthen your relationship and build the trust that is so essential to true engagement.
Resources:
Gallup – improve-employee-engagement-workplace
HBR – a-primer-on-measuring-employee-engagement
Forbes – 12-signs-your-employee-is-disengaging-and-how-to-respond
