Organisational Change: Why Employee Engagement Is So Important
At Lean Practice, our mission is simple: we help businesses optimise performance by removing blockers and interference, by implementing systems that drive positive growth. In doing this, one thing is clear: organisational change can only happen when employees feel involved and valued throughout the process. In fact, employees who feel their voice is heard are 4.6 times more likely to perform their best work. Why is employee engagement so important to organisational change? To answer this question, let’’s first define our terms.
Employee Engagement
Employee engagement is a workplace approach that creates the optimal conditions so that each member of an organisation can give their best each day. In practice, it describes how employees feel about their jobs, their level of commitment to the organisation they work for, and the level of effort they put into their work. Given the hands-on nature of many key industries - such as construction - a lack of engagement is not just a performance issue, but a financial and safety one. In fact, according to Gallup, in a company of 10,000 employees with an average salary of $50,000 each, the cost of their disengagement is $60.3 million annually.
Whereas strong employee engagement increases productivity to the tune of 21% higher profits per year. Of course, employee engagement varies by industry, and when taking manufacturing as an example - 34% of employees are engaged, 38% are disengaged and 27% are actively disengaged.
Organisational Change
Organisational change is the process a business undergoes when making significant structural adjustments. It may be a change in culture, underlying technologies or in its internal processes. It’s impossible to leverage change in a way that brings about a successful result with a poorly engaged workforce. Engaged employees retain their jobs - those who find passion and purpose at work are more than three times as likely to stay with their employer than those who don’t. Moreover, employee engagement reduces absenteeism - a Gallup study shows that highly engaged workplaces saw 41% fewer absentees. It goes without saying that in order for organisational change to be implemented, a unified team needs to be in place with employees who are actively present in their jobs.
In fact, nearly 60% of projects aimed at achieving business change fail to meet their objectives. As only 41% of employees are engaged in their work, it’s fair to conclude that there’s a connection to be made.
On the flip side, poorly managed change can make engaged employees feel disenfranchised. If management fails to communicate any changes to their workforce - or fails to clarify what is expected of them, the chances are they’ll find themselves lacking in enthusiasm as that change is implemented. In fact, 91% of employees say that their management lacks communication skills, with 1 in 3 employees stating that they do not actually trust their employers. As a result, as disengaged employees resist change, they make it harder to deliver the benefits of any updated processes. A staff low in morale can pose risks to overall productivity and customer satisfaction. In a Hay Group study, businesses with an engaged workforce had 89% greater customer satisfaction and 50% higher customer loyalty than their disengaged counterparts.
Increasing Employee Engagement in Aid of Organisational Change
It follows that any business would want to improve employee engagement to better leverage successful organisational change. In doing this, it’s imperative that management makes their employees feel valued and heard.
70% of employees say that motivation and engagement would improve if they were thanked more often. It’s shockingly simple - don’t take your staff for granted. No matter how rational we think we are, humans are driven by our emotions. Businesses that cultivate strong personal relationships between their employees and management are greasing the wheels that drive forward organisational change. Studies show that almost three in ten employees feel some form of negative emotion following an interaction with their immediate supervisor. Poor relationships with management leads to poor employee engagement and retention levels.
It’s imperative that management pays close attention to feedback. While positive and constructive feedback helps to improve employee engagement, it's just as important to ask for employee input. When workers feel heard and appreciated, they are empowered and inspired to perform. Given the nature of organisational change, substantial effort is required across the workforce. There is no point in investing in a change that’s doomed to failure. There is no point in attempting organisational change with poorly engaged employees.
At Lean Practice, engagement is not some score, percentage, or latest survey . In fact, Aaron Penwill, our Managing Director and Head of Performance states that “Employee Engagement isn’t some KPI we measure, or our employees feeling happy, it's when our employees choose to use their discretionary effort in the business”.
As such, our first steps when we conduct our transformation programmes with our clients, once we’ve scoped out the client needs is “Engage”. We actively seek out all key stakeholders in the business who will be impacted by the change and ensure they not only have attention on what the change will bring, the opportunities its seeks or problems it solves ALSO the commitment and buy-in to take on the change, the true engagement to get fully behind the change and do the work. Too often we get the nodding dog syndrome, where people will agree to change but inside screaming NO.
We uncover the silent screams, we explore the case for change which may be different for each stakeholder group, and share the insights for people to make a choice, to get skin in the game, to engage, to lead.
