The Vicious Cycle of Employee Engagement – Surprised?

Employee Engagement, when seen beyond the mere metrics and surveys, are short-lived, and do more harm than good because of the wrong expectations they set 

Money can’t buy love, but it sure can buy a lot of positive feedback says many post-engagement reports. Or so seems to be the trend for a vast majority of HR leaders who rely on these markets as metrics for their employee engagement performance. 

What this entails is a vicious cycle, companies spend millions on a series of events, perks, benefits, that are offered to an employee, who in turn, are temporarily engaged and motivated to perform at high levels – this, of course, is short lived, and it all wears off very quickly. 

In the meantime, though, employees, like internal customers, expect to be delighted. They expect better perks, the next event to be bigger, more benefits…. 

An eventual downward spiral. 

Not quite the solution – but here’s what is: Improving, and investing in, the employee experience. HR leaders across the world, and especially in the companies focused extensively on innovation, are moving into the metrics that define the employee experience at their respective organizations, each day of the year. This is not just about initiatives anymore. It is a way of life for the employee.  

The Research supports the claim, too. Companies that invest in employee experience have reported 400% profits over companies that don’t, with a staggering 280% increase in revenue per employee. Organizations that have transformed employee engagement into employee experience also possess the highest employer brand recall – consider names like Airbnb, Adobe, LinkedIn, Accenture and KPMG. 

The experiential transformation of the workplace is an important function of the modern HR leader. While best-in-class companies are getting ahead in this game, many others are catching up fast. Are you?