The term employee engagement gets thrown around pretty loosely today, but what does this concept really mean? With 63 percent of employers concerned about employee retention, employee engagement goes a lot deeper than just smiling happy employees at the office. It’s about how employers are jumping through hoops to keep their workers plugged in.
What’s Happening with Employee Engagement in the USA?
Gallup Poll data from June 2015 indicates that employee engagement is still fairly low in American workplaces, at about 31.5 percent of the adult workforce. That means about two-thirds of all employees are disengaged, checked out, and probably looking for other opportunities. PayScale's Compensation Best Practices Report for this year indicated that the number one reason why employees leave their jobs is over compensation. Perhaps employee engagement and compensation are connected?
A Link Between Compensation and Employee Engagement
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) rolled out their 2015 Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement Survey, which illustrated the importance of compensation as it relates to job satisfaction and engagement. Their figures indicated that:
- 65 percent of employees polled said the reason they seek employment outside of their organization is for more compensation and pay
- 61 percent of employees rated compensation as important, but only 24 percent were very satisfied with their present compensation
- 57 percent felt they were paid competitively for the local market, but 22 percent were very satisfied with their current pay
- Half of the polled employees thought a base rate of pay was important, but only 21 percent believed they were very satisfied
In terms of employee engagement levels, when people are paid fairly for their hard work, they tend to enjoy their work more and they will produce at higher levels. An article in the Harvard Business Review indicates that, “organizations with a high level of engagement report 22% higher productivity”. Further, engagement can boost employee morale, increasing retention rates, improving the well-being of employees, and reduce injuries and accidents. Taking steps now to improve the compensation and the workplace experience for your employees makes perfect sense. Employee engagement is a win-win for businesses and employees alike.
What do you think?
How does your company increase employee engagement? Does compensation play into overall employee satisfaction levels? Leave your comments and feedback below!Learn More!
Don’t miss our special webinar this week!
On Thursday, August 13, 2015 at 10am PST, our compensation experts will be talking about “Best Practices in Creating Employee Engagement” Please be sure to register for this free webinar here.
