In our rapidly evolving marketplace, building a company culture that fosters highly engaged employees is not just nice to have, it’s a necessity.
Engaged employees are the backbone of a successful business, reporting better well-being, superior retention rates, lower absenteeism, and higher productivity. Engaged teams consistently outperform others and are instrumental in meeting business goals and driving growth.
This focus on business goals can help your team stay aligned and motivated. Yet, many companies seem to lose sight of this crucial aspect. It’s time to reevaluate our priorities and recognise the pivotal role of employee engagement in our business success.
According to Gallup, global employee engagement was a mere 23% in 2023. This statistic presents a significant opportunity for business leaders to access the untapped potential of the majority.
Regardless of your current situation, improving engagement is always within reach. After all, in leading companies, over 70% of employees feel engaged.
Engaging your workforce should be a top priority, not just in good times but especially in challenging times. This is not the time to ease off. When navigating a tough market, it’s crucial to maintain a strong focus on fuelling employee engagement. A strong focus on engagement can make a difference, and your determination can lead to significant improvements.
At KellyOCG, we’ve witnessed the transformative power of consistent investment in employee engagement. Regardless of market conditions, we’ve learnt that attracting and retaining top talent is the key to our success, growth, and providing the best possible experience for our clients.
Organisations can experience success when their strategies have improved employee engagement and led to significant business outcomes. The commitment to aligning these strategies with the organisations’ values and setting annual improvement goals has been the catalyst for our clients’ success. Some of the commitments for consideration include:
Developing your people—Learning and developing investment to improve your onboarding and ongoing training is essential. Numerous skills enhancement workshops and knowledge-sharing sessions reinforce the capabilities of your various teams, positively impacting your service delivery to clients. A few wide-ranging training topics could include:
- Managing Change
- Coaching Skills
- A Mentoring Mindset
- Situational Leadership
Celebrating success—Over the years, leaders have learnt that a culture of celebration and gratitude, which means acknowledging and appreciating the efforts and achievements of employees, drives high performance! Organisations could instigate comprehensive award programmes across countries and regions, even globally. Spending quality time celebrating in the sunshine with your local, regional and international colleagues is a great motivator to encourage engagement throughout the year.
Transparent goal setting—Utilising the OKRS (Objectives and Key Results) for goal-setting is a popular management framework to set challenging and ambitious goals and track progress monthly. Employees feel more engaged when they know how they fit into a larger corporate strategy and how their actions contribute to company results. Too often, employees feel removed from the company’s performance. Be open about your organisation’s objectives, progress, and how an individual employee’s goals should play a part.
Autonomy, control, and flexibility — Employees should have a say in decisions that impact their lives. Therefore, organisations should consider decentralising decision-making for non-strategic functions to empower individual teams. This approach fosters a sense of ownership and makes our employees feel valued and integral to the company’s operations. Some ways this works best include flexible schedules and local teams’ social activities initiatives.
Giving back—Corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives reflect our corporate values and foster a team spirit and sense of collective achievement outside of work. Extensive research has shown that CSR and this strong sense of purpose increase employee engagement and productivity and lower absenteeism. In addition, it attracts top talent and strengthens customer retention and loyalty, making a difference in organisations’ bottom line and profitability.
Focus on wellbeing—Employees must have the time and resources to address their physical and mental health and well-being to feel engaged at work. This starts with respecting personal lives and priorities outside the office:
- Recognise the need for a healthy work-life balance.
- Provide wellness programmes such as health screenings, fitness classes, counselling services, etc.
- Encourage breaks and vacations.
Looking ahead
We understand that businesses must frequently measure their engagement to determine whether their efforts continue to succeed. Regular employee engagement surveys could show whether an organisation is on the right track and provide guidance to help set the right plan when it has strayed. This practice not only reassures leaders about the effectiveness of strategies but also instils confidence in the organisation’s approach.
Benchmarking your engagement against other top performers in your industry is also essential. In addition to surveys and awards, leaders should constantly monitor day-to-day factors such as team dynamics, workload distribution, and communication effectiveness to ensure employees feel enthused about their roles.
As mentioned at the beginning of this article, attendance, turnover, productivity, and customer satisfaction are all important indicators of employee engagement.
As we move forward—against relatively strong headwinds in our industry—let’s all remember that now is not the time to let up in our campaigns to build a healthier company culture that promotes employee engagement. If anything, it’s time to put the pedal down and redouble our efforts.
About the author
Peter Hamilton is the Vice President and Managing Director in APAC of KellyOCG. He is equipped with practical,
applicable, and real-world knowledge that enables him to advise clients on how to align their talent strategy with their business strategy. He sets the strategy and leads a talented team to execute KellyOCG’s growth plans in APAC and has delivered exceptional financial results. In addition, he serves on the board of directors for the World Employment Confederation, representing the employment industry at the global level.
