Research and Statistics

Employee turnover is estimated to cost Australian organisations more than $100 billion in 2008 (Source: Unisys).

Companies with an engagement score of 60% or higher have an average five year shareholder return of more than 20%, while companies with engagement scores of less than 40% usually have a negative return of 10% to shareholders.

Australia has some of the lowest engagement levels in the world with fewer than 20% of employees engaged, 60% not engaged and 20% disengaged, according to the Gallop Organisation.

Analysts suggest turnover costs companies between one and two times an employee’s salary in lost productivity. This means that for a company with 1000 employees and a 20% turnover the cost could be over $13,000,000 annually in lost productivity.

Employee engagement is the number one factor identified by CEO's in achieving success in the future with 90% of organisations dealing with this employee issue at board level (Human Resource Magazine)

The Gallop Organisation found that after six months in a new job engagement drops by an average of 62%.

Less than 30% of companies measure the cost of staff turnover. (Source: Mercer Cullen Egan Dell)

An 86% higher share holder return is generated by companies that spend more than the average on training. (Source: American Society for Training & Development)

67% of customers leave because of an attitude of indifference on the part of a company employee. (American Society for Quality, 2000)

41% of employees at companies with poor training plan to leave within a year vs. 12% of employees at companies with excellent training (American Society for Training & Development, 2003)

71% of employers providing tools and resources such as career management programs say it has improved their ability to attract and retain employees.

73% of companies researched said they were implementing a self-service intranet portal for the benefit of employees. (Source: AHRI)

Australia has the fourth highest proportion of people working 50 hours a week or more in the world and our rate is growing faster than any other industrialised nation. (Source: The International Labour Organisation)

Australia’s top 100 companies spend an average of just $833 a year on each manager’s training and development. (Source: Committee of Economic Development)

 “Australian employers are putting their productivity at risk by failing to motivate employees, with a global study finding that 62% of Australians are disengaged at work.  The Right Management study of more than 16,000 employees globally, including 2,000 in Australia, revealed that just over a third (36%) of Australian workers are stars- employees who are connected to their job and feel their organization is a great place to work.  However, an even higher proportion is disconnected – 42% are neither engaged, nor do they like where they work”. (HR Mag May 2007).

1. Purpose

The right employee engagement strategies can boost organisational performance by 44% (The International Society for Performance Improvement)

 “If we ask HR directors what is the biggest challenge they face it is attracting & retaining good people”…  “82% of respondents said their organisation’s benefits were a key factor in keeping them from looking for a job elsewhere. However, the survey also showed that Australian employers have some work to do in this area, 25% of the employees surveyed saying their pay and benefits package failed to meet their needs, and 40%  saying it failed to encourage a sense of ownership and loyalty to the company. “

Stewart Fotheringham – AON’s Consulting Managing Director

There are three key drivers that contribute to sustainable and increased levels of workplace happiness: engagement of work preferences; an adaptive approach to risk; and alignment of organizational and personal work values. (McCann)

Most employees don’t leave jobs or organisations – they leave managers. Many leaders became too busy and didn’t invest the time to constantly coach and review their employees (both in work and life). Research shows that 10-50% of senior level appointments fail in the first 18 months.

2. Reward

An 86% higher share holder return is generated by companies that spend more than the average on training. (Source: American Society for Training & Development).

3. Opportunity

“Within this tight labour market companies can get a real competitive advantage by having strong and effective recruitment processes, well-equipped learning and development strategies and an effective employee engagement program”. Graham Hollebon – National Director of Michael Page Human Resources.

4. Relationships

According to Relationships Australia, 80% of people are finding it increasingly difficult to get work life balance.

Most employees (87%) say that they are most productive in their jobs when surrounded by colleagues with whom they share a good relationship.

5. Work Fulfillment

AHRI found that 70% of office workers believe that the most important consideration when choosing a new job is the company's culture.

“When people are placed first they will provide the highest possible service, and profits will follow”… This philosophy is a value chain that suggests that, by taking care of employees they will deliver the high levels of service demanded by customers, who will in turn reward the company with continued patronage and profitability.” John Allison – Vice President of HR FedEx Asia Pacific

6. Life Balance

The majority of managers (89%) believe that employees leave for more money, whereas 88% of employees actually leave for reasons other than money (Saratoga Institute Research).

According to Relationships Australia, 80% of people are finding it increasingly difficult to get work life balance.

32% percent of workers cited work-life balance as the top priority in their careers, followed by job security at 22%

7. Leadership

Less than 33% of organisations reported holding managers accountable for retaining staff. (Source: Mercer Cullen Egan Dell)

Acquisition and retention of employee talent is the number one factor identified by CEO's in achieving success in the future. Employee motivation and engagement was rated number four. (Source: Hewitt & Assoc)

 “For the first time this year, McFarlane believes investors and analysts have begun to recognize that the “soft stuff” really does matter. For example, Macquarie Research recently issued a report on employee engagement, which found that revenue, profit and shareholder returns are linked to high engagement levels. At the time of the report it found ANZ’s engagement levels were ‘in the zone’ at 60%…”- John McFarlane, CEO of ANZ Bank

According to Gallup, “65% of all engaged employees stated that their organization is committed to building employee strengths and encourages new ideas that defy conventional wisdom”.

Sun Microsystems Inc. calculates that it saves $300 million per year in real estate costs by allowing nearly 50% of employees to work anywhere they want”. (Source: Timothy Ferris http://www.4hourworkweek.com/ferriss-resources-truthstats.htm)

You can’t engage people today with yesterday’s methods and expect to be in business tomorrow.

The quality of your people sets the quality of your business.

A good organisation knows what an employee wants.  A great organisation shows the employee what they didn’t know they wanted.

Employee engagement is first determined by the attitude of the leader, not the attitude of the employee.

Most people know what they don’t want; fewer know what they really do want.  Our quest is to help them find out what they want and then engage them with it as much as possible.

I don’t believe in generational differences as much as individual differences.  The key these days is to make time to focus on the individuals’ needs.

Every company’s greatest asset is its people, because without people you have no company.

Your employees will care about you in the same proportion you care about them

What if you train your people and they leave?  Well, what if you don’t train your people and they stay?

If the majority of your employees are disengaged, did you recruit them that way, or did you condition in that way?

To really engage people you must give something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is usually sincerity and integrity.

Consider each employee as a family member who deserves the respect of being well looked after.

Employee engagement is the investment we make for the privilege of staying in business

The damage of a disengaged culture remains long after the short-term benefits of human resource budget cuts.

Starting today, treat every employee as if they are considering leaving the organisation.

We cannot hope to build a great organisation without improving individuals within it.

The employee experience is the next competitive battleground.  It’s where business is going to be won or lost.

It’s not the customer, the product, but the employee that is number one.

In a world of the Internet your employees’ next employer is only one mouse click away.

It is no longer about raving customers it’s now about raving employees.

Simply look after one employee at a time. When you look after your people, there’s always a return on investment.

Employees don’t stay because they understand.  They stay because they feel understood.

Recruit comrades, not employees. 

We don’t want to push work on to employees, we simply want to align people with work that they want to do. 

Employee engagement is the currency that keeps us successfully in business. 

The employee you engage is the employee you don’t have to spend time and money recruiting.

Ask any good leader why employees stay.  Take good care of people and it will give them good reason to come back.

Resist being a hard-nosed businessman, but rather a humanistic leader.  Focus on your great people more than the money as great people make you money.

Constantly seek very demanding employees, as they will challenge you to perform even better.

Engaged employees are the best salesperson any organisation can have.

Confidence in your people is contagious – so is lack of confidence.

Engage people through their hearts, not their heads to be successful.

Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.  (Aristotle)

The only way to know how employees see the organisation is to look at it through their eyes.

People are more important than technology.  If you don’t believe so, put good technology in the hands of poor workers.

When you start seeing your employees as an interruption, you’re part of the problem, they’re not.

Employee engagement is your responsibility. 

The true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not expect to sit.  (Nelson Henderson)

If you engage people well, do it even better.  Be daring, be first, be different.