Employee engagement is the extent to which an employee is willing to exert extra effort into their work to help a company exceed. Presenting a trophy, award or plaque is a great way to boost engagement levels in the workplace. Altough the definition of the term varies across fields and researchers, in practical terms is it about an employee highly identifying with their role and company. Previous posts have shown why it is important to recognise employees with trophies, awards or plaques. Today i will look at a few measurable advantages that engagement can bring; they are productivity, profitablilty and staff retention.
JRA conducts an annual best places to work survey of New Zealand organisations and companies. Their 2011 report identifies these three advantages as being exhibited in companies with highly engaged staff. Earnings per employee are $34 239 for low levels of engagement; this jumps to $58 782 for medium and $60 963 for highly engaged workforces (a difference of $26 000 !). Holding an annual awards and recognition event for employees can thus turn into an investment and growth strategy for the company rather than an expense. Renting a function hall at a decent hotel with catering will cost around $20 000 for a hundred employees. Corporate trophies, awards and plaques can be done for around $2000. If such a programme can raise engagement levels in just one employee you would have paid for the function already. Such recognition programmes are more likely to raise engagement levels in all employees as a culture of performance is created in the company, so really the return on investment is many times over. JRA identifies a 10% change in engagement levels as resulting in additional earnings of $606 500 per year for 50 staff, $1 819 500 for 150 staff and $6 062 000 for 500 staff.
The second measure highlighted by JRA is return on assets being much higher for highly engaged workforces. They identify low engaged workforces getting a return of 6% on assets versus 9.8% and 22.8% for medium and high engagement companies. This effect will especially evident for companies using assets and capital that are not at full operating capacity. A human can only work so fast, but a human operating a computer or machine can push the machine to its limits. Thus we can see a ratchet or exponential increase in output due to a more highly engaged employee increasing productivity of assets to a higher degree than they have improved their own performance. This makes sense looking at the numbers; the jump from low to medium RoA is 3.8% but jumps steeply by 13% from medium to high. Having an award, trophy or plaque sitting in front of someone in the workplace is sure to reinforce they are valued and drive them to maintain high performance levels.
Lastly, highly engaged workforces have higher staff retention. If employees are being recognised for a job well done then they are more likely to stay. A ten percent increase in engagement levels is associated with a 7.7 percent increase in likelihood to stay in one's role. This can save costs on retraining as well as lost opportunity costs during the downtime of seraching for and hiring a new employee. For an increase in engagement of 10% JRA estimates a saving of $48 000 for small companies ( less than 50 staff), $144 000 for medium (150 staff) and $480 000 for large workplaces.
For these reasons it is worth investing some thought into boosting employee engagement levels. JRA states recognition as one of the key drivers of this for Kiwi companies. The top workplaces always have well run recognition programmes for employees. Xpress Awards and Trophies NZ Ltd specialise in corporate trophies, awards and plaques. Give them a call on 09 3775705 to discuss design options, or have a look through their website.
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