In the business world, each and every employee must take some accountability for his or her own engagement. However, it is important to remember that there is a direct correlation between the level of your employees’ engagement and the level of your company’s employee retention. Which brings up the question, just how engaged are your employees? Or, perhaps even more importantly, exactly what is your company doing to ensure a high level of employee engagement and, therefore, better retention rates and higher employee morale?

Just How Important Is Employee Engagement?

Many business owners and executives don’t truly understand the importance of employee engagement. When you look at the research, however, it is clear that employee engagement has a direct impact on the success of a business’s operations.

The Employee Engagement Report 2011 published by Blessing White research shows us just how crucial employee engagement is to the success of a business. For example, the studies conducted in this report show that there is a very strong correlation between the engagement levels of their employees and the and age, role/level, and tenure of those employees within the organization. Engaged employees stay longer and provide more value to the company.

The 2011 report also shows that employees who are engaged plan on staying with your organization for what they give to you, while disengaged employees only stay for what they can get from your company. Disengaged employees are less likely to make significant contributions to your company as a whole, while engaged employees work harder to provide value to your organization.

Achieving Engagement

It is clear that employee engagement is crucial to employee retention and productivity. The question is, how can you encourage employee engagement? While it’s true that employees are somewhat responsible for their own level of engagement, your company must also do its part to help your employees achieve the maximum level of engagement possible.

First and foremost, train your executives and staff managers to foster a culture of employee engagement. It is important to remember that management sets the tone for employee engagement and morale. If your managers are not doing their part, your company’s culture, employee engagement and retention will be impacted.

Also provide your employees with opportunities to apply their talents and to develop a career path that is of interest to them and provides challenges. The study mentioned above showed that employees who are given these opportunities have higher levels of employment satisfaction and are more productive than employees who do not.

Evaluating and Addressing Employee Engagement

It is important to understand your employee engagement levels at all times. This can be achieved through employee questionnaires and surveys. The problem is, this approach can and will backfire if you do not follow up with the information that these surveys provide. For example, if employees state that they are unengaged due to certain company policies, you must be willing to re-evaluate those policies and take action due to the feedback you receive. Not doing so will only disengage your employees even more.

If your company currently has high levels of employee engagement, then maintaining that engagement is crucial to the continued success of your business. If your company is suffering from high levels of employee disengagement, consider the advice above and make the changes necessary to foster better employee relations and employee engagement.