“Employee engagement” has recently become a buzzword in human resources. Many companies are concentrating on creating a more invested staff to boost productivity, revenue, and the bottom line. Employers now actively take considerable initiatives to boost employee engagement, as it is widely recognized as a critical metric of company success. So, what are the pros and cons of having an engaged workforce? Let’s define employee engagement first, then go into the specifics.
To motivate your staff, giving them a common purpose within the organization and a clear path to reaching their professional goals is essential. The payoffs for a business can be enormous if these criteria are achieved and used to drive success. However, issues like absenteeism and physical safety emerge when a business fails.
Advantages
Reduces Absentee Rates:
Illness or other unavoidable circumstances can justify a few absences. However, discontentment and a lack of interest might lead to absenteeism. When employees take more time away from work than usual, they are less effective and produce less. As a result, this impacts the company’s bottom line. Providing a healthy work-life balance for your workers is crucial to see reduced absenteeism. The implementation of effective wellness programs and generous vacation policies can reduce absenteeism.
The following are the results of creative labor:
When workers are exposed to new ideas and perspectives, their originality flourishes, and that originality is evident in the final product. A broad group of employees at a discussion table almost guarantees originality in the final product since each individual will inevitably contribute their ideas. A higher level of participation usually results in more creative output.
Sales Boosting Strategies:
Engaging customers in a variety of ways has been shown to increase sales. First, and maybe least importantly, companies with enthusiastic staff tend to have more satisfied customers willing to try out new products and services from those employees. When people feel ownership over their work, they become advocates for the company in their personal and professional circles. The second benefit is an enhanced sales force. Salespeople have much to gain from a vibrant workplace culture, not just in the high-pressure arena. Sales positions that involve interaction with customers put the interests of both the company and the consumer at risk. Disengaged workers could care less about the results, while engaged teams always give the customer the best service possible. Sales, word-of-mouth, and legitimate review sites all increase directly from the positive customer experience.
Disadvantages
Driving workers to exhaustion:
Highly engaged workers, when given the opportunity to do so, can get completely absorbed in their work to the exclusion of all else. It is believed that highly involved workers are more likely to have work/family interference and that those who don’t take downtime risk harming their health. Even if businesses want workers to develop into spiritual workaholics, encouraging that path isn’t good for anyone’s health in the long run, including the company’s. When once-motivated workers show signs of burnout, productivity levels in the workplace may dip.
The threat to safety has increased:
When a large number of people inside an organization have access to sensitive data, it is more likely to be leaked. This is a significant drawback for the business, but wasting time and money is another severe issue. Leaks of sensitive information can harm a business, and it’s impossible to predict which employees will spread the message.
Conclusion
The current hot topic in human resource management is employee engagement. Getting the most out of your team may not always be the wisest course of action, but there is much to be gained when it does. Engagement enables leadership to have a much more personal impact on the workforce. You can get around these drawbacks by purchasing a reasonably priced employee engagement solution like Blink by evaluating Blink’s price.