Companies with high employee engagement enjoy a culture where employees are driven to contribute not just because it’s required of them, but because they are passionate about and invested in their work. Organizations that foster and promote employee engagement are also known to function better overall.
That’s because a large number of workers today seek employers whose values align with their own. They want work that matters and greater personal involvement in their professional roles. Employees today are looking for flexibility in schedules, work environments that have strong, positive cultures, and companies that make them feel valued and heard.
That’s exactly why employee engagement programs are essential for all businesses, regardless of their market niche, size, or style of operation. Research shows that employee engagement directly and indirectly improves working conditions, lowers staff turnover, increases productivity, and helps develop and maintain stronger customer relationships.
The Correlation Between Employee Engagement and Customer Delight
Research suggests that there is a direct link between having engaged employees and delighted customers, and this helps achieve your business goals in the long term. In other words, customer delight is driven by staff engagement.
Employees who are more engaged are more in sync with the organization’s mission and goals, which improves the quality of their interactions with customers. When customers feel the passion and dedication employees have toward their workplace, they become repeat customers and also recommend the business to others. Positivity in other words directly impacts customers’ purchasing decisions.
Other results of employee engagement include long-term loyalty gains, upsells, and consumer recommendations. Employees who are enthusiastic about their work are more likely to care about the company’s audience. Often this will result in them going above and beyond to ensure clients or customers have a pleasant experience.
Here’s how employee engagement ensures customer delight for your business.
Building High-Performance Teams
It should come as no surprise that employees who like their work put in more effort, which directly benefits organizations. Employee engagement can increase workplace productivity by 20% to 25%, according to McKinsey research. This helps build high-performance teams that help ensure customer delight and satisfaction in the end.
Less Stress and Burnout means a More Active Workforce
Employees who are less engaged are more likely to feel stressed, which lowers engagement and can create a cycle of disengagement that’s hard to escape. Unchecked stress often leads to burnout, characterized by persistent feelings of being overwhelmed and a lack of desire or care about one’s work. The American Institute of Stress estimates that stress costs US firms $300 billion annually. Enhancing employee engagement can help prevent workers from falling into this trap.
Consistency in Brand Value and Goals
According to a 2017 IBM survey, 80% of workers report feeling more engaged when their work is in line with the company’s missions and goals. Customers also like to support brands that value the human experience, particularly in today’s technological environment. Engaged employees are more likely to understand and believe in the emotional impacts of products and purchases on customers. Engaged employees tend to care more deeply about the customer experience, which creates real business value.
Employee-Led Brand Voice
Giving employees a pat on the back at work isn’t enough for employee engagement; you also need to put them front and center in your business and your brand. Emphasizing the employee experience in marketing, as one example, is crucial to proving that you value workers and what they contribute to your business. The ethos of the company is positively impacted when employees feel seen, heard, and cared about—core emotional elements of employee engagement.
Community Goals
Employee participation in CSI programs and community improvement projects can also boost employee engagement, in addition to helping companies achieve their community and social responsibility goals. If your business has trouble meeting its customer experience objectives, consider implementing a formal staff engagement program to lay the groundwork for a fuller employee engagement program.
How to Increase Employee Engagement at Your Workplace
Successful employee engagement programs fold employee-centered programs into many aspects of the business. Strong visible organizational values, an understanding of and response to employee expectations, career planning to help employees achieve their goals, excellent communication tools, internal social collaboration tools for peer-to-peer learning and collaboration, knowledge transfer, and an excellent reward and recognition program are just a few.
Some other key drivers for employee engagement at the workplace include:
- Commitment from business leaders to make the company a great place to work.
- Initiative from business leaders to set the right course and company culture for employee involvement and well-being.
- Valuing employees as important resources to brand building.
- Investments to make employees more successful, productive, and collaborative.
- Flexibility for employees to work and make work decisions.
- Maintaining positive relationships between workers, supervisors, and lead authorities.
- Creating an environment where the employee feels heard, seen, valued, and important.
- Driving communication, both formal and informal, making it easier for employees to interact and learn mutually.
- Keeping employees informed of major decisions, changes, and updates.
- Enhancing mediums for feedback and information exchange.
Keeping your top employees can boost productivity and customer satisfaction while also increasing sales and earnings for your company. Additionally, businesses that place a high priority on the well-being of their employees are likely to have positive effects across the board. Employee engagement has a surprising range of advantages, from higher sales to improved workplace safety and, most importantly, delighted customers. At the same time, it is a strong indicator of an organization’s success, with value that only increases over time.
