Employee engagement: Creating a culture of operational excellence
Employee engagement supports plant safety, food safety and operational efficiency goals. Could your operation be doing more to create a culture of engagement?
It’s no secret that employee engagement boosts individual, team and overall operational performance. A recent Towers Watson study found a highly engaged workforce can improve operating margins by up to a factor of three compared to companies without one, deliver 6.5 more days on the job and contribute to a 41 percent better retention rate. Plus, higher levels of employee engagement correlate with improved plant safety and food safety, communications and, ultimately, production success.
“Engaging for Success: Enhancing Performance Through Employee Engagement,” a study for the UK government, found companies with low employee engagement earn an operating income 32.7 percent lower than counterparts with more engaged employees. And according to a Corporate Leadership Council study of 50,000 workers, it’s all about company culture—or as the study puts it, “commonly used segmentation techniques based on tenure, gender or function do not predict engagement. Instead, dramatic differences between companies suggest that engagement levels are determined more by company strategies and policies than any characteristics regarding the employees themselves.”