A recent study shows that companies that invest in improving their employee experience, have an employee growth rate 1.5 times higher than those that make no investment to enhance their employee experience.

This study published by Harvard Business Review, also reveals that the employee salaries, average revenue, average profit, average revenue per employee, and average profit per employee are also higher in companies that invest in employee experience than those that do not.

But there’s the rub: most businesses, especially startups and SMEs, sidestep employee engagement as a cost-cutting strategy and focus primarily on generating revenue. Though there’s nothing wrong with this approach, it often backfires, bringing businesses back to square one.

When employees join an organization, they want to be treated as growth partners and want their abilities and unique skills to be used to achieve the shared goals. When that happens, they tend to connect with the company emotionally and give their best in terms of productivity and results rather than working just to go home and receive their paychecks. This also creates a high trust, high confidence culture within the organization, which makes employees feel important and least concerned about their place in the organization.

For these reasons, employee engagement is considered key to a business’s success and should not be overlooked at any cost. And if you haven’t thought about it, here are a few more reasons why it should matter to you now, more than ever:

You are competing for qualified people — including those who are already working for you

Let’s be honest: there are tons of job positions available on the market, and there is always a scarcity of talent to fill those positions. Companies are ready to offer anything to make employees switch their loyalty. This means recruiters may be reaching out to your top performers right now to get them to switch sides.

And how do you make sure that doesn’t happen? It’s easy: you create an engaging environment for your employees, so they feel more connected to you and think twice about joining another organization, even if they will have a better paycheck in hand.

Of course, you will need to gather employee feedback and experience data and put an effective employee engagement strategy in place, but all your efforts will pay off in the long run. It’s always best to hold on to your current employees than lose them to your competitors, which is the worst-case scenario for a business.

Your business’s future depends on your employees

It’s no secret that you, as an employer, set the foundation for your organization. You may even be responsible for bringing in all the revenue. But you cannot argue on the fact that your employees are the driving force behind your organization’s growth and success — they are pillars of your empire. And the moment they stop shouldering the burden, your empire might collapse or become stagnant, to say the least.

So, if you are not focusing on making every employee feel that they are all working to achieve the same goal with the same vision, you may be slowly pushing them away. So, take steps today to know how your employees feel about working in your organization and what you can do to enhance their experience during their tenure. Again, an experience management system can be of great help to you in doing so.

Your employees are also investing in you

There were times when employers treated their employees as if they did them a favor by offering them a job. Today, to some extent there’s no shortage of jobs in the market, and employees do have options. So, the “feel lucky to have a job” approach no longer works.

Today, employees have the upper hand, and they are the ones to invest time and effort in your business, your goals. And when they do so much, it becomes essential to ensure they have a better experience while working with you. Not doing so will leave a negative impact on them, making them look for another opportunity, probably with an intent to cause significant loss to your business. Organizations such as Google, have incorporated best practices to improve their employee experiences. Google focused on breaking down barriers, encouraging creativity, and collaboration, all by focusing on one important factor -- transparency. Maintaining transparency helps their employees feel empowered. SMEs and startups can take hints from these bigger brands on how to develop a culture that promotes better employee engagement.

Bottom Line

While successful companies have started to realize the importance of employee experience, startups and SMEs still need to figure out how the experience they provide to their employees affects their growth and success. And once they do that, they should better start paying meticulous attention to employee engagement.

If you want to know the experience of your employees while working in your organization, consider taking advantage of Dropthought that helps you gather employee feedback, experience, and more.

Click here to know more!