Businesses of all shapes and sizes have suffered in recent years. The economic crisis was devastating for many companies, and perhaps
unsurprisingly, SMEs were on the front line when the impact of the economic landslide took full effect. Small businesses across the country faced the fear of kissing goodbye to years of dedication, hard work and (above all), ambition for the future – with one in ten fearing they’d be closing their doors for good by the end of 2013.
But things are on the up for small businesses, as owners dust themselves off and begin to rebuild their delayed plans for the future. A study carried out by The Federation of Small Business revealed that SMEs are feeling increasingly optimistic for the future. The Confidence Index measures confidence levels among SMEs, covering a range of themes and areas. SMEs employ roughly 60% of the UK workforce, and account for 99% of all private sector businesses, according to the FSB.
At this pivotal interval, it’s absolutely integral for SMEs to address their employee engagement strategies for the year ahead. It won’t promise protection from global financial implosions, but it’ll certainly help to ready businesses for success and put them in the best possible position to achieve goals – ensuring businesses are in shape to weather any future storms.
The Evidence
Why is employee engagement important? Why do I need to implement it in my organisation? We overhear these kinds of questions everyday, so we thought it was about time to answer them.
Here’s the thing; it’s absolutely proven that employee engagement actively influences business success. It’s not a buzzword or fluffy office favourite that’ll disappear in a few weeks, never to be seen again. You might be a sceptic, wondering why it’s had such a long life as a term used in organisations. There’s a very simple reason for this – it works.
There’s a whole host of evidence, explaining the how, why and what of employee engagement. Engage for Success is the Government Taskforce for Employee Engagement, committed to the belief that employee engagement is a better way to work. They found that companies with engagement scores in the top quartile had twice the annual net profit compared to the companies in the bottom quartile. Businesses in the top quartile also experienced 18% more productivity than those in the lower categories. Sceptics -take a look at the evidence here.
As the evidence continues to pile up, it really goes without saying that engagement isn’t a concept to be sniffed at. And for SMEs, it’s really not an idea that should be ignored. With such a huge volume of the country’s workers employed by SMEs, it’s vital that small and medium enterprises embrace engagement.
So what’s the problem?
Many small business owners simply think they don’t have to ‘do’ employee engagement, thinking their business is too small to allow for ‘HR activity’. Employee engagement can be successful in any shape or size of business if the time is taken to get it right. Our approach to engagement is transformational, and relies on individual, qualitative information combined with quantitative stats and figures. We don’t simply fire out a survey and leave it at that – we tailor our engagement so it’s right for the company we’re working with.
Transformational engagement doesn’t wait for a survey to tell management what is wrong, it’s integrated into the business, part of the culture and management philosophy. Employee feedback is sought and harnessed regularly and acted upon – it’s ongoing, not a project and most importantly, it’s sustainable because it’s embedded into the culture of the organisation. We don’t need huge numbers of people to create change and innovation within the walls of a business – because it’s about finding a solution that’s right for each individual company.
We can’t click our fingers and fix the problems businesses across the country are continuing to face, but we can encourage them to look at the evidence and embrace employee engagement. SME owners must resist the urge to let employee engagement slip down the priority list – trust us, it’s worth it.
Engage for Success are asking for SME owners to take part in their survey – you can find the details and complete the survey here.
