Engagement & Motivation

What is the barrier between employees and untapped creativity? Could it be the fear of failure?

Anxiety is a serious deterrent for anyone; few things are more powerful than the thought of getting something wrong and facing the inevitable embarrassment and consequences that will swoop down on us after.

Many employers don’t realize how significant a barrier the fear of failure is towards achieving employee engagement.

In 2017, the World Economic Forum presented a study which revealed the brain’s unprecedented growth not through repetition, but through failure. A whopping 30% increase in employee confidence was realized just through employers adjusting the workplace mentality towards mistakes.

‍In other words, failure is the gateway to innovation and there are a few reasons why.

Overcoming Failure At Work Teaches Work Ethic

When we experience failure, we examine the path that led us to our payoff and visualize the changes we want to apply in the future. Introspection engages the subconscious and conscious parts of our brain, deepening our focus and intention. By framing failure as an acceptable outcome, you ensure these meditations are reinforcing positive thinking and optimism. 1

‍That same 2017 study also pointed out a direct relationship between optimistic thinking and personal confidence; those who had the former, inevitably demonstrated an ability to “think outside the box and overcome workplace challenges.” 2

"Our data supports the idea that confidence impacts workers' objectives and perceived success... Our results are consistent with a confidence cycle, whereby confidence and success create a positive feedback loop."

Something Innovative This Way Comes

Some of the most recognizable names in the retail market are products born from accidents. We know it doesn’t always work this way, but whoever rode a bike for the first time without falling a few times?Creativity is not a science: No one can say, “this + this = brilliant idea!”However, as an employer, you are in control of the environment in which your potential creative minds operate. Your work culture can either support creativity or hinder it and the way to achieve the former is by encouraging new ideas, no matter how ridiculous.Plan group brainstorming sessions where employees can pitch their ideas or send out an open invitation for feedback on a new project that the company is taking on. You don’t have to run with every idea that comes your way, but you may be inspired by what you hear. Ideas breed more ideas, which in turn - you guessed it - bring on more ideas.

The Time Has Come: Encourage Mistakes

The automatic psychological and physical response to a mistake is not a positive one. If your workplace culture openly encourages mistakes and communicates that mentality to every member of staff, it is possible to change this reaction amongst your employees.Drive your business forward with a team of risk-takers, whose passion and ingenuity knows no bounds. All you have to do is tell them it’s okay to be less than perfect because, in fact, you want them to be anything but.

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Discover how peer-to-peer recognition can foster a positive work environment - book your free Qarrot demo today!

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Resources

• The Learning Brain Gets Bigger--Then Smaller
• The Best Leaders Know That Letting People Fail Can Help Them to Grow and Improve
• Lifehack.org - Its All About How You Fail

In our twenties, we jump into the workplace with the ambition to realize our career aspirations and an excitement for professional work environments. When we think of our lives twenty years down the road, we often think of ourselves as having achieved our goals and despite a few grey hairs and wrinkles, we imagine ourselves happy.

Why is this so often not the case?

‍A recent study found that one in six workers between the ages 35 and 55 are unhappy, more than double the number for those under 35.  While the number of “happy” workers between the ages of 18 and 34 (a whopping 92%) is something to celebrate, the high rate of discontent amongst older workers is scary.

For those outside of this bracket, aged 55 and above, things are not much better statistically. Nearly a third of people over 55 don’t feel appreciated, while 16% say they don’t have friends at work.

‍What is happening in the lives of workers that by age 35, satisfaction at work takes such a significant dive? There are a few answers to this.

First, an awareness of how far one has or has not come. If the goals we set for ourselves have not come to fruition, the disappointment of this combined with the knowledge that the clock is ticking leaves many feeling unfulfilled. Corinne Mills, a joint managing director of Personal Career Management, puts it this way, “A feeling [we have] around that age, [where we think] ‘shouldn’t I have made it? Shouldn’t things be more sorted by now? Is this it?”

Another change in the life of a 35-year-old to that of a 20-something-year-old is that our priorities can dramatically change. This is the time when many have started a family or, at least, begun seriously thinking about it. Ten years earlier, the grind of working long days was less physically draining and felt consistent with career priorities, but this lifestyle isn’t as alluring to many workers after the age of 35.

"There comes a time when either you haven’t achieved success, work has burned you out, or life experience tells you family is more important…You ask yourself: ‘What am I doing this for?" - Cary Cooper, a workplace researcher at Manchester Business School. 

Avoid the pitfall

Midlife dissatisfaction can also be the by-product of stress. By 35, many people have achieved higher positions of seniority and feel heavier stress-loads from the increased responsibility and pressure. Compound this with the impression of not being appreciated, and one can understand why an employee would be unhappy.

As an employer, the awareness of how your employees are feeling should be used as an opportunity for you to change the statistics within your company. By 2024, one in four people in the labor market will be 55 or older, meaning a significant portion of your workforce are at risk of being unhappy and unengaged.

The best solution is prevention, and there are many ways for you to easily ensure your staff are happy, no matter their age.

Simply put, show your employees some love.‍

This can be as simple as in-person recognition, granting more autonomy to demonstrate your trust, or investing in growing your employee’s skills. The best part about this is that you don’t have to guess at what they would appreciate: Ask them! The question itself already serves as recognition that they are appreciated.

Beyond recognition, it’s important to simply be aware that older employees have a different lifestyle than younger staff. Check in with them to see how their work-life balance is going and create a channel of communication where employees will feel comfortable expressing feeling overworked or overlooked. These are confident employees who have been in the workforce for years and know what they are good at: Make them aware that they are assets to your business and they will bring everything they have to the table, happily.

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Recognized employees are happy employees - book your free trial with Qarrot today!

With every job, there are bound to be days where things are less than perfect, and you head home at the end of an 8-hour grind feeling deflated and unrewarded. At least you can take solace in knowing this kind of a day is a one-off, an occasional occurrence, and a good sleep will likely be enough to reset and make tomorrow better.

But, what happens when it’s not just the occasional day that has got you down? What do you do when work leaves you unsatisfied more days than not?

The first reaction many of us have when work is making us unhappy is to start packing-up and looking for a new job. Of course, jumping into a new role at a different company is likely to make you feel engaged and rewarded for a while, but the novelty and excitement can quickly wear off.

What this habit does to your resume and, most importantly, your long-term sense of fulfillment, however, should have you considering your current situation more carefully.

Before you go the route of “I’m out of here!” consider what this response will look like to potential future employers. Every time you are unhappy at work, your instinctual habit will be to start looking for something new, because hey, it must be the job that isn’t right. Right? Job after job, your resume will begin to look more like a directory than a professional CV and would-be employers may be concerned about hiring someone who has bounced around so much. And you still haven’t found that perfect position…

This doesn’t have to be your situation.

There is an old saying that knowledge is power. How true! However, you need to put that knowledge to work to truly benefit. Accordingly, the more you can dissect your situation and your feelings, the more power you will have. By identifying the specific things you find irksome and those things you need in your job to feel rewarded, you can reduce the risk of being a job-hopper.

Over the course of a week or so, make a list. This list can include the things you find frustrating, the work-life balance you wish you had, the inefficient work processes around you - anything.

When your list is completed, ask yourself:

Is it my job, or is that just part of it?

‍There is usually some part of our job that we don’t love as much as everything else. The good news is, you can work with that! The next step is to identify what element of the job is bringing you down. Brainstorm some solutions to the problem - decreasing the number of tasks, sharing the work volume with a colleague, or changing the approach to the work could all be viable options. If you find yourself in a job that doesn't let you do what you do best and enjoy most, try to be creative in finding ways to do more of those activities. Making time for these tasks, even if just in small bursts or brief times over the day or week, can have a significant impact on your energy, engagement, and happiness.

If your list reveals to you that your general state of discontent is coming from missed lunches, extra hours, or an absence of appreciation, think about what changes need to happen for you to feel valued or to achieve a work-life balance.

Next, bring your insights to your manager and let them know you’re not feeling as engaged as you have been previously. This isn’t just a meeting for you to complain, though. Initiate a conversation about what you need to feel fulfilled at work and provide constructive solutions to help you both make that a reality. Remember, your employer is not a mind-reader, they can’t know you’re unhappy or help you out if you wait until you quit to inform them!

If, after your conversation, you ultimately decide to leave your job, at least you will know it was an informed decision; everything you have learned about what you need as a person and professional will help you to find and negotiate future job offers.Just remember: don’t make your career choices a guessing game. Knowing yourself better will ultimately lead to finding the right job.

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Don't wait any longer to engage and motivate your team - book your free demo with Qarrot today!

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Resources

• ‍Forbes.com - Unhappy at work: either change what you do or change how you do it
• ‍Themuse.com - What to do when you hate your job and you don't have anything else lined up yet
• ‍Experience.com - Ten things to do if you really really hate your job
• ‍Forbes.com - Five ways to get unstuck and break out of a career funk

Have you ever considered how your body language affects your employees and colleagues?

If not, you should.

Body language is a powerful method of subliminal communication and reflects your energy levels, emotional state, and personality. Because it is extremely easy to misinterpret, it is important that managers and executives be aware of what their body language is communicating to others within their organization.

Take charge of how you are coming across; body language can be a positive contributor to overall effective leadership. Knowing how to utilize your body language and interpret others’ will give you some useful tricks to keep employee engagement levels up.

Show interest in your employees

When in meetings or having one-on-one conversations with employees, ask yourself: What message is my body language conveying right now? You may be engaged and interested in the discussion, but your employee won't be aware if your body language is sending a different message.

And while you may think you appear engaged, take note of those little habits that say otherwise. For example, are you checking your watch, replying to text messages, or scanning the room while an employee is speaking? Don’t discourage your employees from contributing by sending a message of disinterest.

‍Attentive body language will encourage employees to contribute and engage in conversations. Eye contact, directly facing the person speaking, and non-verbally responding to input by smiling, nodding, and tilting your head, are all clear indicators of an interested listener.

Your body language will also signal to your team what is expected in meetings. If you are actively engaged in your team’s responses, your employees are more likely to emulate you and demonstrate engaged, supportive body language.

How do you hold yourself?

From the moment you enter a room, your posture informs employees of your mood, attitude, approachability, and interest. Maybe you are fatigued, or maybe you have never thought about your posture. But, you should know that other people are seeing it - and it has an effect.

An executive who sluggishly moves around the office doesn’t exactly energize her staff or inspire them to be their best. Show you are physically and mentally engaged yourself through strong body language; stand tall, with your shoulders back, and don’t forget to smile.

‍Smiling lets everyone around you know that you are approachable, cooperative, and open to communication. If you want your workplace to encourage idea-sharing, foster an inviting culture, and to motivate employees, smiling is an integral ingredient.

Respond to each employee accordingly

When two people are communicating effectively, they are often mirroring one another’s physical nuances. This physical synchronicity is called body mirroring and often happens involuntarily. But, that doesn’t mean you can’t consciously employ it.

If you notice an employee keeps a few feet of distance between himself and his coworkers when speaking, he probably has a larger personal bubble. This may be because of cultural or personal reasons. You can demonstrate your respect for his boundaries and make him feel more comfortable communicating with you by being aware of his spatial preferences. This way, you avoid making an employee feel nervous or stressed, consequently distracted by his emotional state and unable to fully engage in the conversation.

The personal gestures an employee uses when communicating are also important to notice. Do they make eye contact? Do they use specific, unique hand gestures? The more you observe how your employees are trying to communicate, the more versatile a communicator you can become. Your message will probably come across either way, but these small adjustments improve your employees’ engagement by showing them that you are more engaged.

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Book your free demo with Qarrot to unlock the power and motivation of peer-to-peer recognition!

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Resources

• ‍Monster.ca - Body Language
• ‍Monster.com - What the Boss Body language Says
• ‍Businessinsider.com - Common Body Language Mistakes Employees
• MakeForbes.com - 10 Simple & Powerful Body Language Tips for 2012

Here is a winning leadership strategy you may not have thought of: Know the ins and outs of your employees’ personalities and you will unlock exactly how to maximize their effectiveness within your organization.

The more an employer understands the unique traits in each team member, the easier it is to interact with them, inspire them, and have every individual operating at their full potential.

Not only that, but by understanding which personality types work best together and which tend to butt heads, you can more confidently ensure harmonious teams.

But apart from routine interaction with your team members, how can you learn their personality types?

Reliable personality tests take the guessing work out of employee placement and motivation.

Personality tests can be administered at any time - even as part of your onboarding process. Have your employees complete one online and get the results within minutes. An awareness of what your employee holds as a moral belief, what fills her with passion, what behaviour she can’t stand and what their own behavioural habits are is enlightening for both of you.

Take these insights one step further and arrange a personality-type education seminar for the entire office. Without having to point out an example in the office of every personality type, your employees are likely to recognize traits and behaviours in themselves and in their co-workers. An awareness of how to interact with and motivate co-workers is invaluable.

Personalities can be categorized in many ways: for a detailed analysis of the psychological traits in your employees, you can have them complete the Myers Briggs Personality Test. However, even simpler surveys can provide you with useful insights into the relative preferences, traits, and attitudes of your staff.

As an introduction to identifying the different behaviour styles in your organization, here is a brief description of A,B, and C personalities. This approach to personality categorization describes traits exhibited related to work ethic and communication style.

Below is a brief description of these personality types, how they tend to function, and where you may want to consider placing them in your organization

Type A

• These individuals are fuelled by achievement and recognition, often making them more vocal than other personalities in their pursuit of success.
• Extremely organized, impatient and decisive, you will typically see type-A employees’ work spaces covered in lists, schedules, reminders, and sticky notes.

Where To Use Them

Type-A individuals are often suited to leadership positions where the constant demand for decisions and action necessitate someone with their more aggressive, competitive, and achievement-oriented nature.

Type B

• Type-B personalities contrast strongly with Type-A; they are less stressed by external pressure, have more patience, are less competitive and achievement-oriented.
• Their perceptive, compassionate, and supportive nature drives them to make a difference in the lives of those around them, co-workers and clients alike.

Where to Use Them

‍You will want to place Type-B personalities somewhere where they can have frequent interaction with others such as in customer service or human resources. When it comes to rewarding these employees, letting them know you appreciate them verbally goes a long way.

Type C

• This last personality type tends to be highly analytical and detail-oriented, valuing time to themselves to achieve precision.
• Unlike Type-A and Type-B, these employees will be appreciative of autonomy. Although they may still enjoy a good conversation, the presence of other people with whom to connect and collaborate is not nearly as effective in keeping them engaged and inspired.

Where To Use Them

‍Often, these employees will naturally gravitate to roles where most of their work is done not with people, but with numbers or other inanimate objects. Most Type-C personalities will not crave a leadership role and can be relied on to get that behind the scenes work done reliably and accurately.

It’s not uncommon for someone to demonstrate a blend of these personality traits, making the need for each employee to complete a thorough personality test all the more evident!

Some of your work force will be capable of filling numerous roles, so the tricky part is deciding which one will take advantage of their unique qualities best—that’s where a thorough personality test like Myers Briggs comes in.

Strategic arrangement of your staff can introduce your company to higher levels of engagement and profitability than ever before!

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Explore Qarrot to see just how easy recognizing multiple employees and teams can be - book a demo today!

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Resources

• ‍Crestcomleadership.com - 4 Personality Types that all Leaders Should Learn to Recognize
• ‍Owlcation.com - What is Your Personality Type? Type A, B, C or D?
• ‍Fastcompany.com - 8 Personality Types And How To Manage Them
• ‍Smallbusiness.chron.com - How to Manage Different A,B & C Personality Types at Work
• ‍Theundercoverrecruiter.com - Which Type of Office Worker are You?
• ‍Thenextweb.com - 6 personalities in every office – and how to manage them

Are your staff coming in late, leaving early, or constantly chatting with colleagues? According to a recent survey by TotalJobs, one of the UK’s leading online job boards, these are sure signs of low employee engagement.‍

Employers are concerned. A majority attribute low engagement as a key driver of poor performance. And 1 in 3 report that they’re struggling to keep their employees adequately engaged.

The good news is that signs of decreasing employee engagement aren’t hard to spot. 59% of surveyed employers say that lower productivity is the first major sign of problems followed by other behaviors such as arriving late for work, leaving early, frequently chatting with colleagues and extensive Internet browsing. These tell-tale signs have tipped off employers that they need to take action. And many are beginning to combat low employee engagement in a number of different ways.

How employers are taking action

51% say that clear communication - whether via company email, newsletters, or team meetings is an effective way of reinvigorating engagement.

Nearly 46% report that setting out clear objectives for both individuals and teams is also a highly effective approach.

Other strategies include creating a stimulating work environment (39%), fostering a strong team dynamic (28%), building a strong and visible management team (25%), and recognizing proactive and engaged employees (24%).

As part of their efforts to combat employee disengagement, employers are increasingly turning to a roster of tools for help. Chief amongst these are employee rewards and recognition software solutions.

How can rewards and recognition software help?

As the name suggests, this type of software lets employers easily recognize and reward employees - whether for their on-the-job achievements, demonstrating the company’s values, or for their years of service. But good recognition software should go well beyond just helping employers dole out rewards and praise. Consistent with the results from TotalJobs’ survey, a good solution should also improve an employer’s ability to:

• Disseminate objectives and priorities to front-line staff
• Focus individuals and teams on business goals and values
• Encourage and promote teamwork
• Make earning rewards fun and engaging

In industries such as retail, food service, and manufacturing, these additional elements can make the difference between success and failure in the battle against low engagement since management aren’t always right on the front-line with employees.

In particular, employee recognition software should facilitate the communication of the very goals, targets, and behaviors employers want to reward and provide the ability for individual employees and teams to cheer one another on as they work towards accomplishing them.

The keys to this are the immediacy and transparency the software provides, both in notifying employer goals and then letting employees post their own updates and comments as well as displaying individual or team progress towards the objectives.

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Curious about employee recognition software and solutions? Speak to one of our experts today!

Workers feel valued when they believe that their manager, peers, or higher-ups in the organization are aware of and understand their individual contributions on the job. The best way to help employees feel valued is to recognize them when they’ve done a good job. As many studies have shown, recognition doesn’t have to be big and expensive—often, a simple “thank you” will do.

How engaged are your employees?

‍If you’re unsure or don’t know how to approach this question, continue reading for our 6-question self-assessment survey to quickly gauge employee engagement.

Before diving in, we’d like to point out that this 6-step process is meant to quickly ‘triage’ your overall level of employee engagement on your own. More in-depth assessments can be done using one of the many great employee survey tools now available on the market. Unlike those tools, this approach is meant to jumpstart your thinking and give you a rough-and-ready sense as to whether your employees are generally in a good place or not.

When you answer these questions, simply give each a score of 1 (low / rarely), 2 (medium / sometimes), or 3 (high / often). Then add up your scores to arrive at your overall score.

With that said, let's get started.

Do your employees feel a sense of purpose?

Whether it’s working on a world-changing new technology or running the french-fry station at a quick service restaurant, your staff do better work when they feel a sense of purpose related to their job. It may be a feeling that they’re contributing to a greater good or simply understanding how they contribute to a great customer experience.

When thinking about this question, ask yourself: Do you or the managers within your organization communicate a sense of purpose to employees? If not, chances are you’re not scoring too highly here.

Do your employees feel valued?

How often do you or your managers recognize employees for their accomplishments? Do you promote a culture of recognition where employees also feel empowered to say “good job” to their peers?

Do your employees have clearly defined roles? Are performance expectations clear?

It’s common sense that employees need clear roles and responsibilities in order to do their job well. But our research shows that while most workers understand their overall job description, many are still hazy on the boundaries of their roles and often lack a good understanding of their manager’s expectations.

Many tools exist for communicating employee responsibilities and manager performance expectations. But in considering this question, ask yourself: Do you or your managers regularly talk to employees about their work? Are you giving them feedback? Are you clearly communicating expectations for how you’d like them to perform their responsibilities?

Do your employees feel accountable?

It can be easy to assume that anyone you employ feels accountable for fulfilling their job responsibilities, but here too our research shows that reality is different.

Feeling accountable on the job is driven by many different things. Sometimes it’s just an age or maturity question. Sometimes, it’s the seniority of the position (more senior positions carry a higher level of ‘accountability’ by their nature). But just as often, it’s a question of whether a manager has imbued a sense of accountability in her team. This comes from leading by example, but also in expressing an expectation of accountability to employees.

How well do you or your managers communicate an expectation of personal accountability to your employees?

Does your work environment promote open communication?

While it might be tempting to grade yourself highly here because you and your managers are great at keeping staff ‘in the know’, think again. A workplace that promotes open communication is one that encourages employees to express their ideas, concerns, and to give feedback. Not only does this help employees feel more valued, but it lays the groundwork for staff to grow professionally and progress within your organization.

How well do you or your managers promote open communication with your workplace?

Are your employees properly enabled to perform their responsibilities?

Resource-strapped businesses like startups often lack all the tools they need to be successful. This can be motivating for resourceful staff for a time. But in most organizations, if employees lack the tools or manager support to do their jobs properly, they quickly become frustrated. That frustration can turn to active-disengagement if they believe their situation isn’t going to improve anytime soon.

Whether you’re a part-timer at a cafe or are an executive at a large, global organization, feeling enabled to perform well in your job is critical to your motivation.

How well do you or your managers enable your employees to perform their jobs?

Final question: Have you been honest with yourself? Great. Add up your scores. What’s the result?

6 to 10    

Danger zone, immediate action is necessary.

12 to 14  

You’re okay, but some improvements are probably in order.

15 to 18  

Congrats, you most likely have highly engaged staff!

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Uncover more tips to help improve your team engagement! Visit us at Qarrot!

In an era when nearly 70% of U.S. employees report being “not engaged” or “actively disengaged at work¹, many companies are scrambling to determine their level of employee engagement and, if it's low, whether that's having a negative impact on their business.

Employee engagement - or how motivated staff is to perform their jobs - can impact businesses in different ways. Depending on the type of business and the employee role, the impact of low engagement levels can affect different business metrics.

Though poor engagement universally affects employee productivity and turnover rates, it can extend to a broader range of impacts, including everything from sick days taken to customer loyalty. For customer-facing staff, employee engagement levels affect their interactions with customers, impacting everything from customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and even the company’s brand and reputation. For manufacturing businesses, low engagement correlates to higher rates of safety-related incidents. Similarly, across most businesses, absenteeism, sick days, and health claims (related to company health plans) are all impacted by employee engagement levels. In all of its various forms, poor engagement also correlates strongly to decreased sales and profits.

Regardless of the impacts you observe and measure, it’s important to understand these are the outcomes of poor engagement. And so any effort to improve engagement should start with analyzing why your employees are unengaged in the first place. A good understanding of the key drivers will arm you with the information needed to develop an action plan. Then, when it comes to business-casing the investment required to support your plan, you’ll know which metrics you can expect to impact. And you’ll be able to show the ROI from improving the metrics you believe you can impact through your action plan.

From analysis to action - national retail chain case study

Vision Source, a retail optical chain with 4,000 locations, realized that its franchise employees did not view themselves as “salespeople”. In particular, staff did not make a point of attempting to cross-sell or upsell patients as often as they could. The chain determined that this was largely due to a lack of system-wide sales training as well as motivational tools to focus front-line staff on making the effort to promote certain products and services.

Given this assessment, Vision Source put in place a system-wide sales motivation program that included online training, reference materials, and sales incentives.The impact was immediate. Employees suddenly had access to training that helped them improve their on-the-job performance and attractive incentives for selling certain higher margin products and services. Employees felt more empowered and motivated. And the result was a significant increase in the year-over-year growth rate.

Impact statistics from the field

As presented earlier, the impact of poor employee engagement varies by business, industry, and employee role. Here are statistics² from companies that have implemented employee recognition programs in which the focus is on recognizing and rewarding behaviours that reflect the company’s core values:

Engagement

90% of companies say it has positively impacted engagement, resulting in a more meaningful and happier work environment.

Retention

68% say it has positively impacted employee retention. The estimated cost of replacing an employee ranges from one to three times his or her annual salary and the average company loses about $1 million with every 10 professional employees who leave.

Safety

37% say it has positively impacted employee safety, resulting in reduced absences from work-related injuries, lower injury-rates, and lower costs associated with worker medical expenses, worker replacements, training, and insurance premiums. On average, $1 invested in injury prevention returns between $2 and $6 in direct savings.

Wellness

29% report a positive impact on health and wellness goals, reducing the number of sick days taken, paid sick leave and lost productivity.  Engaged employees are absent two-thirds less than the employees who are disengaged and unhappy.

Brand and Reputation

Organizations with 50% or more of their employees rating themselves as “engaged” retain over 80% of their customers.³ More highly engaged employees provide a better customer experience, which, in turn, promotes greater customer loyalty. In fact, companies in the top quartile of employee engagement experience a 10% higher customer rating than those in the lower quartiles. Improving the customer experience may pay for itself as U.S. brands are reported to lose approximately $41 billion each year from poor customer service.⁴

Cost Control

A high employee turnover rate correlates with inventory shrinkage. Inventory shrinkage is estimated to cost retailers a staggering $30 billion annually, and half of that loss, or $15 billion, is attributable to employee theft.

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Learn how your team could benefit from a recognition and rewards program! Book your Qarrot demo today!

With employee engagement on the minds of many employers and human capital professionals these days, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to scour hundreds of statistics from various studies and articles to come up with the 14 we find the most surprising.

These statistics concern not only the current state of employee engagement but the cost of low engagement to companies as well as the benefits of high employee engagement.

Current State of Employee Engagement

• 37% of U.S. accommodation and food services employees say they had or will quit their position in the current 12 month period.¹ (Retail, customer service, and hospitality organizations are designed around high-turnover: jobs are relatively easy to learn and new employees can be integrated fairly quickly. But, this strategy doesn’t eliminate the cost of “cycling through” staff.)
• 49,5% of U.S. employees are “not engaged” at work. (Worldwide, the percentage of engaged employees drops dramatically to 13%)
• 35% of the U.S. workforce said they’d look for a new job if they don’t receive a pay raise in the next year. ² (In U.S. tech-powered companies, 65% of employees are confident they can find another job if their salary expectations aren’t met.)
• 52% of the workforce is open to a new job opportunity.

The Cost of Low Employee Engagement to Companies

• 150% of a mid-level employee’s annual salary can go into finding and hiring their replacement. (400% for high-level or highly specialized employees. Those expenses cover advertising the vacant position, interviewing applicants, screening candidates, hiring, training...) ³
• 2 years is the average time it takes for a new employee to reach the productivity level of the person they replaced. (The onboarding process also costs the company; training, distraction for managers whose time for coaching and developing existing staff is removed.)

Employee turnover resulting from low engagement has other hidden costs: the process of training new hires can be a distraction for the current staff and, if turnover happens frequently, can ultimately demotivate those employees tasked with back-filling while the new hires come up to speed. This can have even more insidious effects with customers. Turnover amongst customer-facing staff can give the appearance of instability within the organization and ultimately can hurt customers’ confidence.

The Benefits of High Employee Engagement

• 80% of most organizations’ market value comes from intangible assets such as brand, quality of the workforce; its talent, passion, and commitment (A few decades ago, this value was almost exclusively based on tangible assets like machinery, products, and facilities.)⁴
• $2,400 is the average increase in profit per employee per year a company can reach with employee engagement programs.⁵
• 97% of the companies with good employee engagement levels (half or more highly engaged employees) report that engagement leads to greater productivity. 93% say that it plays a major role in the company’s capacity to meet its revenue goals. Overall, 82% of these companies report that high employee retention improves customer loyalty, which provides with a noticeable competitive advantage.
• 33% report a significant impact of engagement on profit margins, and 81% on revenue growth.⁶

Interestingly, highly engaged employees have both a positive impact on customer experience and, as a result, customer loyalty. A long-term study at Sears reveals customers who had a pleasant, pro-active or superior service experience are 10% to 30% more loyal than customers who have did not and would strongly consider purchasing again from a brand if they had a good customer experience.⁷

Regardless of the statistic, it’s clear that employers and human capital professionals are preoccupied with employee engagement for very good reason.

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Boost your employees' engagement and motivate improved performance with Qarrot - schedule your demo here!