Employee engagement

As described by William Kahn, engagement is the sustained connection and drive within oneself. For businesses, this means increased performance, reduced attrition and happy employees. Conversely, disengagement leads to high employee turnover and a significant reduction in productivity, estimated in the public service sector in Canada to be approximately $3.8 billion annually.

Since Covid-19, employees have been leaving workplaces in large numbers. This mass exit has been given terms such as ‘The great resignation’ and ‘Quiet quitting.’ The US food service sector alone has recorded a loss of more than 40% of its workforce, with the monthly turnover rate reaching 6.0%

The primary reason for this substantial departure of employees is that during the Covid-19 pandemic, employees had the opportunity to work remotely from home. Working from home allowed employees to enjoy benefits they didn’t previously have, which were more time with family, and reduced or eliminated commutes. It also allowed those employees to re-examine their relationship to work, redefine life priorities and long-term career goals and realize that the work should extend beyond a mere paycheck.

Therefore, as shown, employee engagement is an essential aspect of every business, leaders need to find ways to engage their employees more than ever, which helps reduce turnover, increase retention, help employees feel appreciated and improve overall employee performance.

The 9 identified key areas to promote performance output and keep employees engaged are:

1) Good two-way communication

2) Involvement in decision-making

3) Autonomy

4) Opportunity for advancement

5) Feeling valued

6) Challenging meaningful work

7) Adequate & Effective training

8) Development opportunities

9) Fair pay

Citations

(Mclaughlan, Majumder, Gelbukh & Lidwig, 2011), (Serenko, 2022), (Kahn, 1990)