Employee engagement still out of reach for many companies

While many people sing the praises and benefits of employee engagement, reports have shown that some businesses are falling behind when it comes to holding the hearts and minds of their workers. 

Temkin Group performed analysis on over 100 large companies and placed each in one of five tiers based on how developed their employee engagement was. Only 3 per cent of the companies had the highest classing of “maximising”. The next stage down (“enhancing”) was home to 16 per cent of businesses analysed. 

Engaged workers were 2.5 times more likely to stay late at work to finish tasks.

The most common classification was “neglecting”, the second rung on the employee engagement ladder, earned by 37 per cent of the companies studied. In the bottom-most rung, there was an equal number of companies compared to the top two categories combined (19 per cent). A quarter of organisations occupied the middle ground of “maintaining”. 

In previous studies, Temkin had suggested that engagement was a worthy endeavour that offered huge potential benefits. Engaged workers were 2.5 times more likely to stay late at work to finish tasks, more than two times more likely to demonstrate a helpful attitude to other employees and more than three times more likely to show altruistic behaviour towards their company.

In terms of financial performance, 75 per cent of firms with developed employee engagement outpaced their competitors, compared to just 50 per cent of companies with immature employee engagement. 

Are companies hitting the mark?

Despite the lip service that employee engagement sees, many companies are not putting their money where their mouth is. In a recent survey conducted by Changeboard, only 52 per cent of companies have a dedicated employee engagement plan in place.

Updated HR technology could help raise employee engagement levels.Updated HR technology could help raise employee engagement levels.

More concerning was the fact that five per cent of companies didn’t even have a department designated for this important factor. As a result of this lack of proactivity, 52 per cent of companies reported that were was stasis in the levels of employee engagement.

However, with a large number of companies planning to change their HR software this year, this may be the perfect time to re-evaluate employee engagement schemes that are aided by technology. 

Towers Watson surveyed nearly 800 participants in 37 countries and found that 30 per cent of companies plan to completely change their core HR systems. With appropriate IT project management training, many of these companies could integrate talent management solutions into their new systems and gain the benefits of employee engagement.