According to a recent Gallup poll, employees who feel engaged in their work produce 22-percent more output compared to disengaged workers. Additionally, employee engagement leads to reduced turnover and a safer work environment. These are important outcomes for information technology (IT) business units, where enterprise networks are growing more complex and skilled talent is in high demand.

Nearly a third of United States workers feel engaged in their work, while more than 50-percent report feeling disengaged. Another group, actively disengaged employees, intentionally participates in activities that undermine organizational goals. This group weighs in at over 17-percent.

Employee engagement is a key factor that contributes to organizational productivity. By investing in the development and transformation of disengaged and actively disengaged employees, IT departmental heads can lead their corresponding organizations in increased productivity and profit.

Effective IT executives redefine work roles to make the most out of each employee’s skill set. The visionary leaders are gifted in observing the connection between daily tasks and organizational goals. In the workplace, competent IT leaders foster a work environment where collaboration and employee engagement coalesce with cyclical fashion to improve workplace productivity.

A significant part of this process is listening to front line employees to learn the realities of managing daily work responsibilities. This feedback provides vital information that modern IT managers use to implement training and career development initiatives that can transform disenchanted workers into corporate champions.

Looking Beyond Productivity

Despite significant gains in productivity, employee engagement means much more for enterprises. Employee engagement produces positive outcomes for workers, consumers and other organizational stakeholders. Enterprises staffed by employees with high levels of engagement are twice as likely to meet organizational objectives compered to underperforming groups. High engagement organizations also experience less absenteeism and employee turnover. The improvements that IT directors witnessed after launching engagement improvement initiatives are significant, especially among enterprises with high number of disengaged employees.

Engaged employees deliver better quality products and services and enjoy improved health, according to an article published in the Harvard Business Review. Most information technology leaders understand the benefits of employee engagement. Still, the executives struggle to transform disengaged employees into workers who are passionate about their careers. Most often, this occurs because IT heads measure the wrong employee performance indicators, track too many metrics or fail to collect information that will produce actionable insights. Other IT executives neglect to make employee engagement a part of the overall strategy for improvement. These professionals may also fail to educate lower level management on the exact meaning and importance of employee engagement. Additionally, they may fall short in training front line managers about employee engagement goals and procedures.

Improving employee engagement is a multifaceted project. However, one simple measure for encouraging this kind of environment is to start by focusing on developing activities that aid workers in sharing a sense of purpose that aligns with organizational goals.

Employee Engagement Delivers ROI

Employee engagement directly contributes to enterprise profit and success. Staff members that care about their work are more productive, deliver better goods and services and remain in their positions longer. Enterprise productivity and stability produces positive outcomes, such as improved customer satisfaction, increased sales and more consumer referrals. These kinds of outcomes improve profits and increase the value of the organization. Over time, heightened employee engagement also leads to improved outcomes for external stakeholders, such as investors.

Consumer and client loyalty is another positive byproduct of high employee engagement. High employee engagement fosters high consumer engagement. This cycle manufactures enterprises patrons who make repeat purchases and deliver liberal positive endorsements to others.

Engaged employees are also five times less likely to be involved in workplace accidents compared to disengaged employees. A report published by human resources consulting firm DDI titled “Employee Engagement: The Key To Realizing Competitive Advantage” reveals that employee engagement reduced turnover from 14.5-percent to 4.1-percent and absenteeism from 8-percent to 4.8 percent among 100 manufacturing companies. Additionally, the Corporate Leadership Counsel states that engaged workers are four times less likely to resign from their posts compared to disengaged workers.

More IT leaders are looking at employee engagement as a way to improve relationships with clients and consumers. However, America’s enterprises have a significant number of employees to transform in the years ahead. It’s estimated that employee disengagement costs enterprises more than $500 billion annually. Employee engagement is on the rise, albeit it marginally. Employee engagement only moved up 3-percent between 2012 and 2016, according to a relatively recent Gallup poll. To drive enterprise growth, IT directors must focus on improving employee engagement by providing ample resources for career development and seeking answers from front-line workers.

Engaged employees are satisfied with their corporate roles and possess a stronger connection to their organizations compared to disengaged workers. Satisfied employees are more likely to produce outcomes that help organizations reach corporate objectives. Due to reduced turnover, organizations with high employee engagement are spared some of the costs of hiring, training and retaining new talent. In the end, engaged employees are the key component for success in the modern marketplace.