Soar to Success April 2021

Engagement is a Marathon, Not a Sprint By Lisa Ryan Y our company culture took a long time to build. It’s not going to change overnight. Employee engagement is a long-term strategy based on trust, integrity, two-way commitment and communication between a company’s leadership and employees. Engagement starts at the top. If company leaders are passing the buck to human resources or lower-level supervisors, it doesn’t work. That’s a bummer, but it’s true. When engagement is nurtured, it can be dramatically increased. However, when it’s not prioritized, engagement can be lost. Once lost – it’s not easy to regain. Engaged employees have a deep, emotional connection to your company. Not only are engaged employees your hardest workers, but they are also the ones who stay with you for the long term and make the greatest contributions to the bottom line. It’s no secret that turnover is expensive. Try putting your own pen to paper to see how much you are spending to bring employees in the door, and what it costs you when they leave. Having these numbers is a great motivation to make the changes necessary to increase your engagement levels, which will, in turn improve your retention levels too.