or any organization, employee engagement is crucial. It can mean the difference between motivation and unenthusiasm in the workplace. Motivated teams will make substantial improvements and progress. Unenthusiastic teams will be less engaged and less collaborative. Either way, employee engagement has a huge impact on the bottom line of an organization.
What is employee engagement?
Employee engagement is the practice of motivating employees to do their best work and stay committed to their organizational goals. Essentially, it measures how invested employees are in their job and how much effort they put forth. When employees are engaged, they are motivated, productive, and have a more positive impact on an organization.
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The impact of employee engagement
A recent Gallup report found that 51% of employees are not engaged in the workplace, and 13% are actively not engaged. Actively disengaged employees have a huge impact on the workplace because they are the ones that are unhappy and spread their negativity to others.
That only leaves 36% that are actually engaged. And while that seems like a low percentage, it’s the highest it has been since 2000. Even during the pandemic, companies were able to keep their employee engagement levels up, showing that the pandemic (and remote work) was not necessarily the engagement killer many thought it would be.
But what about the companies that have highly engaged employees? According to another Gallup report, organizations with a high engagement rate saw 21% higher profitability and 17% more productivity than disengaged workforces. That’s because engaged employees complete their tasks by deadlines and reach their objectives and goals by going the extra mile. This leads to more sales and higher revenue, which improves the bottom line.
How technology impacts employee engagement
As it turns out, companies aren’t as productive as they think they are. A trial conducted by a New Zealand firm, Perpetual Guardian, analyzed what happens when employees switched to a 4-day work week with the same pay. The final result showed that happiness, work-life balance, and productivity of their workers actually improved. They also found that employee engagement improved by a staggering 40%.
This begs the question, ‘how do you manage to become much more productive and engaged working one less day a week?’ It starts with maximizing benefits and ensuring the realization of the potential of productivity software tools. Productivity tools can streamline remedial but necessary tasks, enable collaboration, reduce bottlenecks, and allow employees to take on and check off tasks.
The impacts of productivity software
According to a State of Software survey, 50% of workers are unhappy because of the software they have to use, 25% of employees consider leaving their job, and 1 out of 8 actually leave. Not only is bad software making employees less productive, but it’s also making them quit. That’s why it is imperative to take advantage of productivity software that engages employees. Here are some of the ways it can achieve that:
Saves time on task management
Task management is the process of managing or handling a task throughout its entire life cycle. Productivity software enables you to streamline the process of tracking tasks, managing deadlines, prioritizing tasks, and ensuring that they’re assigned to the right people to ensure projects stay on track and are completed on time. When employees save time with task management, they feel more productive, which increases their general happiness. Time is an underrated and precious resource in any organization. By using automated tools to optimize tasks, employees can make the most out of their time.
One way to streamline tasks for optimum productivity is to bring all the tasks from different systems into one platform. According to a report published by Harmon.ie, the average employee uses more than 9 different apps during their typical workday! With productivity software like MetaSpark, artificial intelligence automatically brings tasks from every system into one screen, which is a great way to save time on task management.
Increases employee collaboration
An ADP Global Study of Engagement survey found that a major part of employee engagement is feeling part of a team. In fact, those that felt like they were part of a team said that they were more than two times as likely to be fully engaged.
With productivity software tools, teams can jump in and collaborate on a specific task and get it done at an accelerated rate. Plus, employees will create relationships and learn from one another. They can develop themselves by acquiring new skills and also develop the team. When employees learn and share with each other, they become more satisfied with their jobs.
In addition, software like MetaSpark creates dashboards to help management understand which teams and individuals are collaborating well, and which are not. These kinds of insights can be enormously powerful to improving team dynamics across the organization.
Why does collaboration matter so much? When people are happy with their jobs, they become more productive. A study conducted by economists at the University of Warwick found that satisfaction in the workplace created a 12% spike in creativity. Through collaboration, employees become more proactive, innovative, and fully engaged—when they benefit, the company benefits.
Improves employee recognition
Employee rewards and incentive programs are important to business success and employee engagement. Especially when competition for talent is fierce, creating a culture of recognition is paramount. It shows that companies value their employees and recognize and appreciate their contributions. Those recognitions can be anything, from going above and beyond to achievements to desired behaviors.
Positive affirmation enhances employee engagement because people naturally crave recognition. From an early age, we look for recognition from our parents, teachers, and friends, and we’re taught to perceive a neutral reaction as negative. The same holds true for adults. When employees feel recognized, organizations can benefit from better retention, higher performance, and increased employee engagement.
With productivity software like MetaSpark, businesses can create a meaningful employee recognition culture by rewarding employees that make the greatest impact. By matching incentives to performance, employees can collect points and earn rewards like gift cards. Recognition doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive, but it’s absolutely essential in a great workplace.
Improving employee engagement is key to creating a positive work environment so that your employees can grow and be recognized for their efforts. With productivity software like MetaSpark—which offers accurate, data-driven insights into productivity across individuals, departments, and the entire organization—you can engage employees and improve the bottom line more effectively than ever.
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