Employee engagement is not just another business platitude, it’s a proven business strategy. Without employees who are emotionally committed to an organization and its goals, a company cannot remain competitive. Further, companies with engaged employees enjoy greater productivity and profitability.

Engaged Employees Drive Sales and Increase Profitability

Gallup defines engaged employees as those who are involved in, enthusiastic about, and committed to their work and workplace. According to their most recent 2017 report, companies with engaged employees enjoy 20 percent higher sales and 21 percent greater profitability than companies with employees who are either not-engaged or actively disengaged.

Employee engagement affects profitability in a variety of ways. For example, engaged employees come to work more often and are 17 percent more productive. A study by The Temkin Group found highly-engaged employees also:

  • Take less sick time
  • Voluntarily help co-workers
  • Are twice as likely to work late if something needs to be done
  • Refer new hires more often, saving the company money on recruitment

The Cost of a Disengaged Workforce

According to Gallup, more than 51 percent of workers worldwide are not engaged at their workplace. By not actively engaging employees, companies can end up wasting thousands of dollars a year, due to a lack of productivity and enthusiasm for the work.

A study by LinkedIn reported that an actively disengaged employee costs the employer 34 percent of their salary in lost productivity each year. Additionally, a disengaged employee is more likely to spread their negative attitude to others. While this employee is working less and distracting others, the employer still pays 100 percent of their salary.

The Right Workplace Tools Are Key for Improving Engagement

One of the easiest ways to foster employee engagement is through clear, open communication. In a 2013 Harvard Business Review study, more than 70 percent of respondents said receiving regular updates from senior leadership about company strategy and business goals made them feel engaged.

On the flip side, too much communication is a productivity killer. The average worker receives 200 emails per day and spends two and a half hours reading and replying to messages. To stay engaged, employees need timely, personalized information that directly relates to their jobs.

Sapho Employee Experience Portal is designed for companies who desire a workplace where employees are productive and “in the loop”. Businesses who turned to Sapho for help were able to improve employee productivity and increase employee engagement by:

  • Providing a continuous user experience across enterprise applications.
  • Simplifying slow and frustrating workflows and enabling employees to quickly complete work on any device, intranet, or messenger.
  • Reducing unnecessary notifications by proactively delivering personalized tasks and information.
  • Identifying and resolve employee pain points.

Sapho empowers and engages workers at every level, from top executives to frontline employees. Using micro apps, Sapho can surface the most relevant tasks, information, and data from all your existing business applications to deliver personalized, actionable insights to employees on their preferred device, via a secure intranet, or using messengers, such as Microsoft Teams, Slack, IBM Watson Workspace, and Facebook Workplace.

When employees feel engaged, they work harder and are more invested in helping the company achieve its goals. By investing in employee engagement, a company sows the seeds for greater profitability, long-term success, and growth.

This post originally appeared on the Sapho blog. In November, Citrix announced the acquisition of Sapho, a leading micro app platform that enables a better and smarter work experience.