Have you ever tried putting together a piece of IKEA furniture without the instructions? It’s a nightmare. Sure it’s doable, but it’s also complicated, frustrating 
and leaves you with a lot of anxiety any time a guest takes a seat in that chair. (Not to mention all of the ‘just-in-case’ Allen Keys you have to keep on hand.)
Same goes for an engagement strategy without senior leadership buy-in. While it’s possible, empowering and motivating your workforce is a lot more difficult without support from your leadership. Senior leaders can help a recognition programme boost your financial gains and in fact, when senior leaders are actively involved in an employee recognition program, companies are nine times more likely to have strong business results. Get executive support for your engagement program by following these three easy steps.
1. Describe the impact that employee engagement has on financial performance.
Recognition and employee engagement strategies fly under the radar when it comes to accounting for financial performance. But the reality is that these functions can have a profound impact on financial performance. Engaged workplaces yield a 38% increase in productivity and a 27% increase in profitability.
2. Explain the cost of turnover.
Many leaders don’t entirely understand the cost of turnover. They know it’s an expense and account for obvious costs such as severance, recruiting fees and ramp-up time for new employees, but there are a number of other hidden expenses that go unaccounted:
- Exit interview
- Advertising and search fees for new candidates
- Applicant travel
- Recruiter time and travel
- Interview time
- Background checks
- Relocation
- Sales revenue
3. Tell them what’s happening at your competitors’ businesses.
Senior leadership is not only focused on what’s happening at their own company, but they also must keep a pulse on what’s going on with your competitors. Do some research and share with your leadership which competitors have adopted engagement strategies and practice recognition. If possible, get insight into their engagement scores by searching on sites like Glassdoor. From there, explain the results that highly engaged companies have on the bottom line. The best companies achieve 10.80% of comparative annualized stock market returns and have 50% less turnover.
It’s of paramount importance to get leadership on our side to help push our HR agenda. Happy selling!
Author: Rob Catalano is Vice President, Global Expansion and Engagement for Achievers.
