Why Employee Engagement Is A Major Worry

Many companies do performance appraisals as a ritual and most firms witness the highest rate of attrition after the annual rewards are announced

- Ashoke K Maitra

ARE we engaging our employees in the workplace? According to the latest statistics, only 36% of employees in the US are engaged in the workplace. This effectively means 64% employees are actively disengaged. I am sure the statistics in India will be more or less the same, possibly much worse.

Gallup states that high employee engagement leads to higher productivity, job satisfaction, sales and revenue. When our employees are actively engaged in the workplace, they feel happier and ready to go above and beyond to achieve the company’s goals. Another Gallup report on employee engagement shows that companies with a highly engaged workforce have 21% higher profitability. They also have 17% higher productivity than companies with a disengaged workforce.

A study on employee engagement found that companies in the US alone lose between $450$550 billion every year due to disengaged workers. That’s partly because of employees’ lack of motivation and a lower sense of responsibility, resulting in lower productivity, errors in work, missed deadlines, poor customer service and lower profits. A single disengaged employee can cost a company about $3,400 in lost productivity for every $10,000 in salary.