Does engagement really make a difference?

Should executives be concerned about these findings? Perhaps a more interesting question to executives is: “Is there a strong relationship between, say, high scores on employee engagement indices and organizational performance?” It seems obvious that engaged employees are more productive than their disengaged counterparts. For example, a recent meta-analysis published in the Journal of Applied Psychology concluded that, “… employee satisfaction and engagement are related to meaningful business outcomes at a magnitude that is important to many organizations.” A compelling question is this: How much more productive is an engaged workforce compared to a non-engaged workforce?

Several case studies shine some light on the practical significance of an engaged workforce. For example, New Century Financial Corporation, a U.S. specialty mortgage banking company, found that account executives in the wholesale division who were actively disengaged produced 28 percent less revenue than their colleagues who were engaged. Furthermore, those not engaged generated 23 percent less revenue than their engaged counterparts. Engaged employees also outperformed the not engaged and actively disengaged employees in other divisions. New Century Financial Corporation statistics also showed that employee engagement does not merely correlate with bottom line results – it drives results.

Employee engagement also affects the mindset of people. Engaged employees believe that they can make a difference in the organizations they work for. Confidence in the knowledge, skills, and abilities that people possess – in both themselves and others – is a powerful predictor of behavior and subsequent performance. Thus, consider some of the results of the Towers Perrin survey cited earlier:

Eighty-four percent of highly engaged employees believe they can positively impact the quality of their organization’s products, compared with only 31 percent of the disengaged.
Seventy-two percent of highly engaged employees believe they can positively affect customer service, versus 27 percent of the disengaged.
Sixty-eight percent of highly engaged employees believe they can positively impact costs in their job or unit, compared with just 19 percent of the disengaged.
Given these data, it is not difficult to understand that companies that do a better job of engaging their employees do outperform their competition. Employee engagement can not only make a real difference, it can set the great organizations apart from the merely good ones.

Engaged co-workers make the difference! I know it, I experienced it and I'm so grateful to have the privilege to boost motivation and engagement in so many huge organisations and teams.

Yvan Dierckxsens

Chief Engagement Officer

Idea 4U, experts in the Art of Motivation