Engaging employees offer a lot of benefits to your business.

Research done by Gallup indicates that ‘Engaged employees are more attentive and vigilant. They look out for their co-workers’ needs and the overall enterprise because they personally ‘own’ the result of their work and that of the organization.’ Does it translate into business results?

Let us hand over the floor to Diane Gherson, IBM’s Head of HR, to share her experience:

Like many other companies, we started with the belief that if people felt great about working with us, our clients would too. That wasn’t a new thought, but it’s certainly one we took very seriously . . . We’ve since seen it borne out. We’ve found that employee engagement explains two-thirds of our client experience scores. And if we’re able to increase client satisfaction by five points on an account, we see an extra 20 percent in revenue, on average. So clearly, there’s an impact. That’s the business case for the change.

How Can You Apply These Learnings?

Here is what you should do:

Invest your time in selecting the ‘right’ employees. Trust and provide them with autonomy and actionable feedback.

Identify, in advance, the behavioral traits that you wish them to exhibit. Invest in their training so that they acquire these traits. Reward and recognize them every time they display them.

• The rewards and recognitions have to be speedily delivered.
• Run your version of ‘The Offer’ and ‘Pay to Quit’ to weed out the disgruntled employees.
• Treat your employees as you would treat your best customers by providing them with respect and care.
• Do not hesitate to show the door to customers who misbehave with your employees.
• Build a network of commitment among your employees.
• Infuse a sense of ownership among employees: Empower and engage them.
• Introspect deeply to instill purpose and meaning, and link this to their jobs.
• Deliver an enjoyable employee experience.

Maximize Employee Net Promoter Score and minimize Employee Effort Score. This will help you cultivate and nurture employee advocates.

Technology is going to spread and develop further and become more important for every business owner, in more ways than it was last year. If you don’t have a website for your business, potential customers are going to assume that you are a small company that does not take their business seriously. Once you establish this reputation, it is going to be hard to make sales. If you need assistance in getting a website for your company but have no idea how you are going to maintain it once you have it, get in touch with HyperEffects.