There’s been a lot of up and down around healthcare in the past year.  2011 doesn’t look any quieter.  Or maybe it will for some companies.  Approximately $25 billion worth of drugs are said to lose their patents in the coming year along with some very familiar household names such as Pfizer, Bristol-Myers, Lily’s and J&J losing over 93 million in familiar prescription names. This probably comes as no surprise considering the cost-saving efforts began from our declining economy in 2008. 

Successful organizations understand the importance of creating a culture of employee engagement. Effective employee engagement allows employees to feel fully involved, enthusiastic and more willing to contribute to company success. On the other hand, when employees are not engaged it can have negative repercussions on issues such as customer experience.

It’s common knowledge that fully engaged employees are more productive, cooperative and more likely to be long-term employees. Employee engagement can have a significant effect on company output and bottom-line of an organization. But the important factor is how employee engagement successfully achieved?

Now is a great time to review the principles you believe and follow in employee engagement. While each company will determine their own set of unique employee engagement principles, there are a number of key ones you must look to first.

High levels of employee engagement can translate into high levels of business performance. With better employee engagement comes increased profitability, productivity, employee retention, safety and customer metrics for your business. Hence the reason why effective employee engagement communication is so crucial for all businesses.

Poor employee engagement in the workplace can be a challenge for many organizations today. Businesses must engage with their staff to keep their workforce motivated and productive. It is essential organizations aim to build an engaged, high-performing and responsible workforce. Identifying and solving the challenges associated with employee engagement can help in achieving this aim.

Understanding trends, and knowing and tailoring corporate job offerings to a changing workforce puts an organization and its managers in control so that they can find and implement new ways to raise employee engagement levels. But knowing what engages employees and how to keep them engaged is crucial.

RENEE KUHS
Compliance Attorney, HNI

A new study has shown that obese workers are costing companies billions in medical expenses, health plan costs and lost productivity. This combined with health insurance costs, presenteeism and time away from work is estimated to be costing businesses in the region of $73.1 billion for full-time employees.

What advice would you give to a manager or leader to improve employee engagement?  Do you feel that your employees are happy and committed to the organization whereby they will do what is necessary in order to ensure the success of the company?  It is more than important to know the answer to these questions in today’s economic state where shortage of employees has caused a rise in overtime hours, increase in responsibility, and shortage of staff.  Find out if your employees are happy and committed to the organization simply by asking them.

Employee Engagement means many different things to many different employees and employers.  One way to view employee engagement is the level of commitment and investment and employee has in the future of a company.  This is not financial engagement but rather personal commitment to the well-being of an organization where employees feel the need to go above and beyond their call of duty to engage and commit to the company.