Employee Engagement

In an increasingly competitive market for talent, insight remuneration data as contained in this report is key to ensure employers remain aligned with market. Pay is undoubtedly a motivator, key to fulfilling a wide range of employee needs, signalling achievement, status and recognition. Failing to keep up with market can risk attrition and loss of key talent to competitors.

Study after study indicate that financial remuneration and benefits are only one aspect of employee engagement, and need to be balanced with a wider strategy that recognises what motivates people to perform at work and unlock discretionary effort.

Employee engagement drives performance. Engaged employees look at the whole of the company and understand the purpose of their work and how they fit in. This leads to better decision-making. Organisations with an engaged workforce are recognised to outperform their competition. They have higher earnings per share (EPS) and can recover more quickly after recessions and financial setbacks. Employee engagement is a key differentiator when it comes to business growth and innovation.

Employee engagement is a key differentiator when it comes to business growth and innovation.

Culture is also a key differentiator in the attractiveness and desirability of a workplace, and quality of working experience. Organisations that can clearly articulate and, most importantly, demonstrate in day-to-day practice, a purpose driven culture where people feel valued, listened to and empowered in their daily work, can hold a key competitive advantage.

Despite the ongoing challenges of COVID-19, during 2021 we witnessed forward-thinking clients invest in their employee engagement strategies, culture and living their values. This has worked particularly well when clients have spent time surveying employees, listening to their views and actively involving them in change relating to flexible and hybrid working, and workplace practices. These employers are positioned to retain and attract the best talent in the current market.

We recently partnered with Trickle, an employee engagement and wellbeing platform, which offers accurate, real-time insights into the opinions and feelings of their employees. Staff can raise concerns anonymously, collaborate with each other and have a far greater input into the direction of the company. This data can then be leveraged to make more informed decisions, which lead to desired business outcomes such as increased productivity and higher retention rates.

With competition for talent predicted to continue, informed employers who actively engage with their employees and regularly ‘take the pulse’ and most importantly, act on that feedback, will be best positioned to leverage advantage.

This article featured in Thorpe Molloy McCulloch Recruitment’s 2022 Salary Guide – view here.