A recent survey by Deloitte found that 80% of UK organisations have a low level of colleague engagement. We take a closer look at the research and how you can improve engagement in your business.

How engaged are your colleagues?

Could you be one of the businesses whose colleagues are not engaged? With 80% of businesses having issues with engagement, that could be the case. The same research also found that only 36% of businesses are prepared to tackle the issue.

So what can you do?

How to measure and build engagement

There are a number of steps you can take:

1. Conduct colleague surveys: 76% of businesses do this once a year, but that can mean a big gap between data and the results can be affected by recent events. Running a simple online survey every six months can give you a better idea about the true level of engagement.
2. Look at other measures too: as well as colleague surveys, take a look at your staff turnover. This can give you a true picture of your engagement levels, especially when compared to industry averages. CIPD has advice about how to measure this.
3. Have an exit interview when people leave: these can provide valuable insight and people may be more open when they are moving on.
4. Identify what is important to your employees: employee engagement is affected by a whole range of things, from company culture to the benefits package. Ask people what’s important to them - and what needs to be changed.
5. Take action: once you have the data from all of these sources, take steps to make changes. If people feel that their views are valued, it’s likely to increase engagement. But you may need to look at training managers, changing the culture, introducing new staff benefits or sharing your vision for the business more widely amongst your employees. The steps will vary depending on your business and what your employees want.

A quick reminder of the benefits

Almost all businesses recognise the importance of staff engagement but it can be hard to invest the time. Here are some of the outcomes that you could see if you can improve staff engagement:

• Easier recruitment: with sites like Glassdoor allowing people to rate their employer, it’s now more important than ever to have a good employer brand. Employees who feel valued and engaged can increase positive word of mouth and so increase the number of applications from the candidates you want.
• Better retention: employees who are engaged in their role can see the value of their work, are likely to be happier and are therefore less likely to leave. That allows you to have a continuity in your workforce and deliver a better service, not to mention the savings on recruitment costs.
• Lower absenteeism: stress and a poor working environment can lead to employees taking time off. If you can improve employee engagement, you’re also likely to see a drop in the amount of sick leave.

Do you have any other tips? What works well to keep employees engaged in your organisation? What does your business do to build learning  and insight so you can improve? Let us know.