Employee engagement is not just an HR buzzword. Instead, it is a key component to a company’s overall success, as it correlates with a variety of benefits such as less employee turnover, better customer retention and increased productivity — all of which feeds into higher profitability.
Specifically, companies in the top quartile of employee engagement are 21% more profitable than those in the bottom quartile, according to a meta-analysis by Gallup.
Still, many employees remain disengaged, and the numbers have been getting worse over the last few years. In June 2011, 27.9% of U.S. workers reported that they felt engaged compared to 32.6% in mid-2016, finds Gallup.
How Sustainability Helps
Employee engagement is comprised of a variety of factors, though certain ones stand out as having the most impact, including “pride in working for the company,” finds Dale Carnegie Training and MSW Research.
And one way to foster employee pride is by having the company make a positive environmental impact.
Slightly more than half of employees say they won’t work for a company that doesn’t have strong social and environmental commitments, and nearly three-quarters say their job is more fulfilling when they have opportunities to make a positive impact at work, according to a study by Cone Communications.
Plus, employees at green companies are 16% more productive than the average company, due to their appreciation for their organizations, finds research from professors at UCLA and University Paris–Dauphine.
Improve Sustainability With Analytics
In order to improve sustainability and reap the benefits that come along with it, businesses can implement energy analytics software (EAS).
With this technology, companies can pinpoint how they use energy so that they can make the most efficient changes, rather than looking at overall usage and not knowing what specifically needs improvement.
Businesses can also track their greenhouse gas emissions with EAS, so they can more clearly measure how changes to their energy usage help them reach their goals for improved sustainability.
Tying It All Together
While improved sustainability itself can help improve employee engagement, it also ties into other key engagement factors identified by Dale Carnegie and MSW: “relationship with immediate supervisor” and “belief in senior leadership.”
With EAS, supervisors can share energy management insights with employees so that they can work together to find ways to reduce energy usage.
Similarly, sharing company-wide emissions data with employees can help them improve the quality of employee relationships with senior leadership, because employees can see that the company is making improvements rather than just talking about doing so. Especially if a company does not already have a strong culture of transparency, they can start to go down that path by easily sharing sustainability statistics through EAS.
So all together, these efforts help improve employee engagement, thereby benefiting multiple stakeholders while boosting the bottom line.
Request a complimentary energy efficiency assessment to find out how Artis Energy’s RTIS® energy analytics platform can provide you with the visibility and insight to transform energy from a fixed cost into a distinct competitive advantage.