Why employee engagement matters

I’ve written on the subject of employee engagement in the past, but I recently learned some interesting facts from Thomas Walter, chief culture officer at Tasty Catering, who spoke on the topic at a recent NationaLease meeting.

He defined employee engagement as “the emotional commitment an employee has to the organization and its values, vision and mission, resulting in the increased use of discretionary effort.”

Here are some of the facts he shared with the audience about organizations that have higher employee engagement compared to those with the lowest.

Organizations with high employee engagement have:

• 48% fewer safety incidents
• 41% fewer quality incidents
• 20% more productivity
• 21% more profitability
• 100% higher customer loyalty
• 25-65% lower turnover

In order to achieve employee engagement, you first need authentic leadership. The three steps to high performance leadership are respect, trust and emotional commitment. The job of a leader is to anticipate needs, communicate, delegate responsibilities and motivate employees.

When looking to add to your management team, it is important to hire people who match your company’s culture. Walter explained that culture -- unlike products, capabilities and services -- cannot be replicated.  According to Walter, “A prized culture attracts and retains top performers.” Culture also is an underpinning of a competitive advantage and higher financial performance. The right culture “engages employees, inspires loyalty and increases discretionary effort.”

Walter then shared the fact that his company has a 92% employee engagement rate which he believes contributed to 2018 sales being up 8.1% over 2017 sales and profits up 14% over the same period.

Tasty Catering has an amazingly low employee turnover rate of 4%. He also said one of the positive consequences of the high employee engagement are awards the company has received that recognize it as healthy workplace, a best place to work and a top place to work.

If Tasty Catering is the model of what can happen when you have an engaged workforce, maybe now is the time to start taking steps to determine what you can do to boost your employment engagement.