Introduction Employee engagement is not at its best these days. Due to phenomena like quiet quitting, engagement for those 35 or younger has plummeted. Experts estimate a drop of 6% in just the past three years. It’s pretty easy to see how poor engagement can be detrimental to your business. People might have limited enthusiasm, care little about their work, and do only the bare minimum. Productivity and profits suffer commensurately. But business engagement can be a vague term that everyone uses differently. And more to the point, what is the purpose of engagement in the workplace? We are here to answer that question and more. Read on as we discuss what drives employee engagement and why it matters.   Employee Engagement Meaning Put simply, employee engagement is all about how employees relate to their job. An engaged employee feels a strong sense of purpose and motivation when they go to work. They can see how their efforts are helping the business to thrive and feel a sense of responsibility for its success. Engaged employees don’t need additional motivation to go the extra mile. They roll up their sleeves and do what needs doing. You can tell who they are because they’re the go-getters who show up early each day. In fact, you can measure employee engagement. It becomes most apparent in the end result of an employee’s work. Their job satisfaction, average productivity, and leadership performance are just a few factors. Engaged employees excel in all categories–and improve where they are lacking. Conversely, an employee that is not engaged feels a disconnect. They are just trying to punch in their hours, regardless of their quality of work. They don’t feel a strong duty towards the organization or their fellow coworkers. That’s all good and well, but what are the tangible benefits to an organization with engaged employees? After all, what matters most is that the work gets done. It may seem at first glance that people don’t need to have passion for their jobs. As long as they are content with their position and pay, nothing else matters. But we are here to show you that engagement has a larger purpose in the grand scheme of things.   What Is the Purpose of Engagement? Employee engagement is more than just an HR buzzword that you plaster on posters. Having it produces real, measurable effects on your business. Let’s discuss what is the purpose of engagement in your workplace. 1. Increases Productivity Over the last few years, the percentage of people who are actively engaged while at work has dropped. It’s gone from 36% in 2020 to 34% in 2021 to just 32% in 2022. This has, unfortunately, led to a rapid decline in employee productivity at many companies. When employees aren’t as engaged as they should be and are only doing the minimum, they aren’t going to be able to produce as they should. If you find yourself wondering, “What is the importance of employee engagement?”, this reason should always land at the top of the list. The more engaged your employees are day in and day out, the more productive they’re going to be while they’re at work.   2. Improves Collaboration When people are doing just enough at work not to get fired by their bosses, they typically tend to keep to themselves. Even if they’re having a problem with something, they won’t always bring it up to others because, quite frankly, that will take too much effort on their part. But when people are engaged in their workplaces, they’re going to be more likely to want to collaborate with others. When they’re having a problem with something, they’ll call a meeting and try to come up with a collaborative solution to it. Most businesses revolve around collaboration, which is another reason why you’re going to want to make sure your employees are as engaged at work as they can be. Employee engagement is inevitably going to lead to improved collaboration and better results overall.   3. Achieves Goals In order for your company to succeed, you’re going to need to get into the habit of setting business goals. You should have a set of yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly, and even daily goals. You should also aim to have your employees set goals for themselves and strive to achieve them. It’ll increase their employee motivation and make it possible for them to see the progress they’re making as individuals. By setting goals on both a company-wide and individual level, you can keep everyone who works for you engaged. You can also increase the chances of all these goals being met at some point.   4. Eliminates Stress As you’ve no doubt noticed by now, you’re going to have some selfish intentions for wanting your employees to be more engaged at work. Employee engagement is going to play a large part in your company’s success. But you should also try to improve employee engagement for the sake of your employees themselves. This should be part of the corporate wellness program that you put together. More than 80% of U.S. workers report feeling stressed out because of their jobs to some degree. You can help your employees deal with and even eliminate much of their stress by keeping them engaged at work. Most people are still going to feel at least some stress at work, no matter how engaged they might be. But when people are engaged, they’re often less stressed than they would be otherwise.   Also Read: Top 10 Causes of Stress at Work   5. Decreases Burnout You might not think that you would have to worry about disengaged employees at your company feeling burned out. But some of your employees might begin to feel burned out at work when they aren’t as engaged as they should be simply because they don’t get the sense that what they’re doing at work matters. You have the opportunity to turn things around for them by showing them that their work does matter. Something like an employee engagement platform can … Continue reading What Is the Purpose of Engagement?