Are You Engaged?
In a past blog, I’ve written about employee loyalty: Employee Loyalty…It’s Management’s Responsibility There’s a direct correlation between employee loyalty and employee engagement.
Employees, supervisors and senior management all have a role in employees being engaged in their work. I realized long ago that I was extremely fortunate to have loved all of the jobs that I’ve had. I was always passionate about my work and the organizations that I worked for. (Many business associates regularly comment on my passion for my work.) At the same time, I am very aware that many people are not happy at work. The extent of this unhappiness surprised me.
Research of over 20,000 managers, supervisors and business leaders by James Bird Guess and the International Success Academy identified four types of employees:
The Passionate Employee – Motto: "I love what I do" – Percentage of staff: 20%
The Professional Employee – Motto: "I'm here to work not make friends" – Percentage of staff: 10%
The Paycheck Employee – Motto: "It’s just a job" – Percentage of staff: 50%
The Problem Employee – Motto: "They don't care and neither do I" – Percentage of staff: 20%
In a Kinesis’ paper entitled Recipes for Success, they found the following:
Companies with highly engaged employees increased profit margins by 3 times over those that had the "just show up for work," group.
85% of customers will pay up to 25% more for superior service.
Small businesses with a written vision grew 50% faster than those that either had no vision or didn't write it down.
Companies with defined marketing plans and analysis grew 30% faster than those that had no written plan.
Conclusions I take from this information include:
Hire employees who have a passion for your business and they will be engaged. In turn, revenue will grow exponentially for your organization.
Outstanding customer service is unusual today. Give your customers outstanding service and your business or nonprofit will succeed and will stand out amongst the competition. And yes, nonprofits have customers, too.
Organizations must have a mission, vision and strategic plan that’s contemporary and that employees believe in. They must be revised annually so they are relevant. (See my blog entitled Southwest - Mission & Business Model to Replicate)
Have in place a written marketing plan, communication plan and for nonprofit organizations, a fundraising/development plan. Too many times for nonprofits, they have these nebulous goals to “increase funding year-over-year” and “increase the awareness” of the organization. Then it doesn’t happen. That which is written will be done.
