What is Employee Engagement?

To answer the question “What is employee engagement?” let’s turn to the famous visit President John F Kennedy made to NASA in 1962. During his time there he noticed a janitor carrying a broom. He interrupted his tour, walked over to the man and said:

"Hi, I’m Jack Kennedy. What are you doing?"

The Jainitor replied:

"I'm helping put a man on the moon"

The answer to “What is employee engagement” is this janitor. They are an engaged employee who understands their role in the organisational goals.

Employee engagement flows from the top to the bottom of an organisation, goals are achieved if everyone involved is aware and invested in them.

Employee engagement goes beyond social activities and events. Engaged employees understand their role and how important they are to achieving a company’s goals. They want to come to work, they know what is expected of them and how vital their role is in the overall picture.

it is about your employees feeling pride and loyalty working for your organisation, being a great advocate of the organisation to its clients and going the extra mile to finish a piece of work.

The Facts & Figures

70% of employees do not consider themselves very engaged.

The UK has an employee engagement deficit. Surveys indicates we rank ninth for engagement levels amongst the world’s twelfth largest economies as ranked by GDP. The UK also has a productivity deficit stretching back to 2011. Our output per worker was 20% lower than the rest of the G7 nations. Employee disengagement is therefore clearly contributing to our disappointing productivity figures and should be driving many more organisations to ask themselves “what is employee engagement?”

Employees can be categorised into 3 groups in terms of their overall engagement:

Ambassador

The target state! They are very enthusiastic about their work and their employer. They give their best and make significant efforts to improve the business. Often going above and beyond without seeking praise or reward

Passive

They are at the club, but hang around the edge blending in. They do contribute to the company, but in at a minimum level. More than happy to stay with the business without fuss.

Detractor

They are not at all invested in their work at all and are totally disengaged. Sometimes, they even actively work against their company. This set shows a much higher rate of absenteeism and very low work output.

Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)

An Employee Net Promoter Score (or eNPS) is a metric that is used to measure employee engagement and loyalty towards an organisation. The eNPS is directly correlated to the short-medium term intentions of an employee. It is a score that is often measured as part of a wider study looking at employee satisfaction. It is a calculation that shows which of the categories above your employees fit in.

There is a direct link between performance of a company and the engagement of their workforce. Working towards a good eNPS can help reduce your staff turnover, meaning less money needs to be spent on recruitment and training.

VRAMP has built-in eNPS tools that allow you to gauge your employee engagement, turn passive employees into ambassadors and help guide detractors into a mindset that benefits company and employee.