Is Employee Engagement Affecting Your Workplace Productivity?

Recruiting a strong and reliable workforce can be a challenge for managers, but keeping that workforce engaged presents a whole new set of challenges that, if not addressed, will directly affect workplace productivity.

Employees are a company’s best asset. Therefore, understanding their needs is key to ensuring that creativity, drive and professional development is not stifled, what’s more, employee turnover is significantly more expensive and time consuming than improving the working environment.

That’s why at Corporate Modelling we promote the ethos of and investing in YOUR people, not MORE people.

If employee engagement is compromised, it can have a detrimental impact on the performance of the company holistically. Not only can it impact the attitudes of other members of staff, it also calls into question leadership skills and can result in a reduced output of work. This then affects the bottom line and can potentially damage a company’s reputation, both internally and externally.

Workplace productivity can be as much to do with the working environment as it is with the individual.

Here are 5 key factors to consider when assessing employee engagement and your workplace productivity:

Lack of understanding of company goals

Only 8% of employees felt that they were fully aware of their company’s strategy last year (CIPD). If employees are so wrapped up in their day to day tasks, ignorance of the bigger picture may hinder drive to contribute towards an end goal. With any role, it is imperative for the workforce to understand their contribution to the overall objectives of the company.

Communication, communication, communication!

Poor communication is a key culprit for most problems – the workplace in particular. At a higher level, it shows a lack of interest in employees by reinforcing the idea that their opinions are irrelevant. It demonstrates that managers do not recognise that an employee needs to be kept informed nor does it open the floor for necessary discussion or a chance to ask questions.

At a practical level, it can result in tasks being carried out incorrectly, duplication of work when corrected and project deadlines missed – a costly penalty to any company.

Poor performance management and lack of recognition

Recognition is a key driver; without it employees can lose the incentive to improve their performance or strive to reach goals set by managers. As much as 23% of employees last year felt that their performance management process was unfair – this could be that they observed praise of others when it wasn’t due, or simply that their own performance was overlooked or neglected.

Monotony of tasks

Repetition of tasks over time can compromise employee engagement. If unaddressed this could result in complacency and mistakes. Rotation of work can break up the monotony of work whilst exposing employees to new departments, as well as improving skills in other areas.

Technology

For anyone to perform to the best of their ability, the correct tools are required. A company that neglects to upgrade their technology compromises the efficiency of their team. Intel, the world’s largest semi-conductor manufacturer, studied the work habits and productivity of more than 100 Intel employees who were upgraded to wireless notebooks and found a gain of more than two hours per week, more than paying for the cost of the upgrades in the first year! (NBRII)

It doesn’t stop at hardware either, specialist back office optimisation software such as OPX, can identify the bottlenecks, skills shortages and training needs within your workforce and  back office, so that employees do not go unnoticed or unrecognised. Employee engagement isn’t just a buzzword – is a key performance factor with a direct correlation to workplace productivity!

 

OPX by Corporate Modelling is an award-winning, workforce optimisation tool, championed by the back offices of leading financial services including the Student Loans Company and Admin Re. Interested? Why not organise a quick demo to see how it works!