Now and then you can hear CEOs and companies say that their employees are their number one priority? It is too often that we hear this, but in practice, it is easy to see that very few CEOs/companies treat their employees right. In fact, it’s most likely that you will also hear that profit comes first, then customers and in the end employees. And of course, you really should not dismiss your customers, but it is essential to treat your employees right. So here are seven reasons why focusing on employees is probably the best thing to do to help your business.
1. Productivity will rise
Highly engaged people are proven to be often less stressed and happier. And happy people will sure be productive; therefore this reason is self-explaining. Being engaged at work will make employees feel connected with the company, and they will work harder because they believe in importance and significance of the work they are doing. Disengaged employees are outperformed by the engaged employees by 21 percent according to Gallup, and many believe that these numbers are too small and outdated.
2. It will keep your staff in your company
Results of the Hay Group study showed that engaging employees means keeping them at your company. More precisely, disengaged employees are 87 percent more likely to leave your company. Besides having a disruptive effect on the services and business, turnover will also increase expenses because of training and recruiting that is needed for the new employees. Before the position is filled, there will probably be a few of lost opportunities that will also have to be paid. Costs of these issues, depending on the role, can range from 16 percent all the way up to 213 percent of salary.
3. Small amount of sick days
American business losses around $228.5 million because of sick days. Engaged employees have 3.5 absence days fewer than disengaged ones. Knowing that sick days are most likely to disrupt your operations and make tasks harder for the engaged staff, companies should take this advice very seriously.
4. More satisfied customers
Richard Branson once said that it’s not the customers who should be the first place on the company’s priority list, it’s the employees, and if they are treated properly, they will do the job with clients exactly as they should and company will have satisfied clients as well as happy employees. A study conducted in 2016 showed that companies which had excellent customer experience had 1.5 times as many engaged employees than companies with very bad customer service.
5. Bigger profits
In practice, much higher profits are achieved by companies with engaged employees. A study conducted by Towers Perrin in 2008 showed that profits rose up by 19 percent over the course of one year at the organizations with engaged employees while companies with disengaged employees experienced 33 percent decrease. Just have in mind, that is a difference of 51 percent in profit.
6. Company’s reputation
Caring about your company is caring about your employees, as long as you treat your employees right and focus on them, be assured that they will speak nicely about the company they work for, and that will reflect on the reputation of the company. This will also help you gain more customers and attract potential employees.
7. Less stress
It is mentioned that happier people are more productive, but they are also less likely to be stressed and stressful to their colleagues. And that is one of the crucial factors in creating a healthy workplace.
