Engaged employees mean more profits

A management briefing published in Ethical Corporation magazine shows that employees engaged with the mission and values of a company work harder and stay in their jobs longer.

The new research also show they are more likely to spot and implement improvements to a company’s product or service if engaged and motivated

The new briefing, titled "Employee Engagement" analyses practices and procedures at leading global companies, including; IBM, Google, Nike, Marks and Spencer, Novo Nordisk, BT and many more.

The briefing, based on original research and dozens of interviews by Ethical Corporation, finds that there are multiple approaches to engaging employees but the main three steps are:

• Good communication – everything from induction to internal publications and intranet sites. Communication needs to be two way, employees need a sense of ownership which requires mechanisms that offer open dialogue and feedback.

• Being trustworthy – A company that claims to be responsible must be able to back their claims up.

• Buy-in: involvement – There is strong evidence that shows that corporate volunteers have far higher engagement levels than non-volunteers. Even employees that are aware of voluntary initiatives rated their employer higher on some of the employee engagement measures.

Throughout the briefing there are many features and analysis that support the above steps and reinforce the fact that employee engagement is extremely beneficial to a company.

During the recession, on a global level employees’ trust in their employers dropped by 60%. However, in the UK’s top 50 best workplaces saw internal trust levels increase by 3% due to management being more accessible and transparent.

Ethical Corporation's analysis shows how KPMG avoided redundancies during the recession by introducing a Flexible Futures initiative which was both honest and asked what the employees were prepared to do to help the company. The briefing also states that companies that engage and empower their employees will in turn take advantage of their internal expertise and ideas.

"Employee Engagement" highlights that a recent study by Gallup found that ‘59% of engaged employees say “work brings out their most creative ideas”, compared to only 3% disengaged employees.

This year’s ‘must-have gadget’ the Apple iPad is a result of innovation from within and Google has a scheme titled “20% time” where engineers pursue pet projects.  Google News, Gmail, Google Maps and social networking site Orkut are just some of the products that have resulted from this scheme.

This approach is known as ‘Intrapreneurship’. Within the briefing James Austin, a professor of business administration at Harvard University, outlines how companies can spot a social ‘Intrapreneur’.