Our Women in Leadership group met with Gary Cattermole, Director of The Survey Initiative, to discuss the hot HR topic of employee engagement, here at our base at The Plaza in Braintree. This was a subject that we knew was going to be intriguing and informative, and the session did not disappoint!
As an expert in the field, Gary imparted a great deal of knowledge and insight. Most helpfully for our HR professionals, he was able to quantify the importance of having engaged employees in terms of greater productivity and creativity, reduced sickness and absence. He clearly explained the tangible benefits of having engaged employees, and presented the group with some jaw dropping statistics!
Gary told us that disengaged employees, across the world, cost companies a staggering combined total of $7 trillion a year! However, to inspire us again, he also shared some amazing statistics on the positive impact of engaged employees on the bottom line.
An engaged workforce is between 10% and 50% more productive than a disengaged one. The good news is that in the UK, some 62% of the workforce is engaged – and we need to listen to these invaluable people to ensure that we keep them in our teams! Measuring engagement in the workforce is essential, so that we can work on making the positive changes which increase both engagement and, ultimately, productivity and profitability.
Gary told us that, compared to their disengaged counterparts, engaged employees:
- Are 20 times more creative
- Attract 12 times more customer recommendations for the organisation
- Take far fewer sick days – less than two per annum, compared with 10+ for the disengaged
As always, our participants also had the opportunity to exchange experiences and swap top tips; ask about best practice and gain some invaluable peer recommendations; as well as discussing some specific challenges which many of our clients face when it comes to employee engagement.
We all went away feeling better informed and – yes – engaged!
If you would like to find out more about attending one of our upcoming seminars and workshops in 2024, then please do contact us seminars@pursuitgroup.co.uk for further information.