Need New Customers? Get Happy Employees

According to Gallup’s “State of The Global Workplace” report, only 13% employees around the world are actively engaged in their jobs, finding satisfaction in their work and focused on creating value for their employer. Actively disengaged employees outnumber engaged employees by 2-1.

Why is this important for marketing strategy? Because the role of marketing is to get and keep customers. And the most effective way to do that is by hiring and retaining engaged employees.

Need proof? According to Gallup, companies who invest and attain higher employee engagement achieve 3 times the operating margin than those with low employee engagement.

What does a company with high employee engagement look like? According to the report, companies with high engagement:

• Make employee engagement important by discussing why it is important before measuring it


• Make employee engagement an important goal for all managers


• Select leaders based on their ability to effectively manage people


• Measure engagement in realistic ways that are meaningful to individuals.


• Their measurement activity leads to actions


• They provide training and coaching for company managers on effective employee management

The report also profiled 3 types of employees:

1. Engaged employees work with passion and feel a profound connection to their company. They drive innovation and move the organization forward. 13%


2. Not Engaged employees are essentially “checked out.” They’re sleepwalking through their workday, putting time — but not energy or passion — into their work. 63%


3. Actively Disengaged employees aren’t just unhappy at work; they’re busy acting out their unhappiness. Every day, these workers undermine what their engaged coworkers accomplish. 24%

Steps To Higher Employee Engagement

1. Hire the right people: With each new hire or promotion, employers have the opportunity to maximize employee engagement in the workplace


2. Invest in developing strengths: employee s who received strengths-based coaching saw their engagement scores improve substantially.


3. Enhance employee well-being. Everyone wants a good job, fair pay and affordable healthcare. But the best managers find ways to improve employees’ lives by focusing on employee well-being, balance while also helping them to be more productive.

Companies with engaged employees see 240% improvement in business results. They build brand ambassadors who reflect positively on the business with each interaction with customers, employees and society at large. Engaged employees not only understand their businesses purpose, they can articulate it as well. And they understand how their job contributes to the overall purpose of the brand.

That’s how to get and keep customers. That’s marketing.

via Business 2 Community http://ift.tt/1c14mjL