Within every company, leaders desire a successful, fully aligned strategy that yields robust results. But often that goal seems a bit like riches trapped in a padlocked treasure chest. At StratACHIEVE, we believe we hold the key to that chest – employee engagement.

Employee engagement is at the very heart of our partnership with companies, and one of our primary tasks when we come in is a thorough assessment of top-to-bottom engagement within the organization. Studies show that 90 percent of companies do not effectively fulfill their stated strategy and that only 30 percent of employees are truly engaged, or so committed to their company that they give their job more effort than what is required.

If these numbers illustrate the problem, than the first step to unlocking the solution is gathering data. Conducting a thorough assessment demystifies the concept of engagement and breaks it into eight major categories. Through this diagnostic tool, we invite employees to give honest feedback in the areas of empowerment, commitment, work/life balance, nature of the job, career growth, performance management, relationships and reward.

The results provide a clear window to true strategic alignment, and StratACHIEVE uses those findings to create a thorough plan for eliminating problems, celebrating strengths and creating the type of corporate unity that boosts both a company’s morale and its bottom line.

Increasingly, workplace studies are pinpointing engagement as the crucial factor in corporate satisfaction and effectiveness. Among recent compelling findings:

• Organizations with high engagement are 78 percent more productive and 40 percent more profitable than companies with low levels of engagement. (Tower Perrin Global Workforce Study – 2007)
• Engaged organizations increased profits as much as three times faster than their competitors. (Corporate Leadership Council)
• Companies with high employee engagement had a 19 percent increase in operating income and almost a 28 percent growth in earnings per share (Hewitt Quarterly Asia Pacific, 2007)
• Highly engaged organizations have the potential to reduce staff turnover by 87 percent and improve their performance by 20 percent.

Aside from the many tangible benefits of employee engagement are the tertiary advantages that come from a positive work environment. Writes Allan Schweyer of the Human Capital Institute:  “Engaged employees work smarter, not harder. They look for ways to improve performance and they find them. This means more sales, better costs, better quality and innovative products. Engaged employees communicate – they share information with colleagues, they pass on ideas, suggestions and advice and they speak up for the organization. This leads to better performance, greater innovation and happier customers.”

Since employee engagement is central to a company’s overall success, any survey to assess it should be comprehensive, touching on every part of any employee’s life within a company. Industry research and our client’s testimonials prove that questions dealing with topics like commitment, work/life balance and relationships are indeed fundamental to the health of an organization.