Why empowerment is key to employee engagement

Employee engagement is crucial to the functioning of your company. When employees are more involved at work, they're motivated to push towards success since they have a larger stake in your organization.

But employee engagement isn't easy to achieve. According to a poll from Gallup, 70 percent of U.S. workers are disengaged at their jobs. And when employees are disengaged, they aren't likely to stick around for long. The subsequent turnover costs companies money and time: An infographic from Dale Carnegie Training shows that $11 billion is lost every year due to employee turnover.

For companies that succeed in engaging employees, the return is promising: The same Dale Carnegie study found that companies with high employee engagement outperform those without it by 202 percent. So, how do you create a company culture and mission employees feel invested in?

There are many ways strategic HR departments try to involve employees more heavily in the company: Managers might introduce an open door policy to increase approachability, or the company might host enjoyable team building activities. The problem? It's hard to measure effectiveness of any strategies without the right technology. If you want a solution, you should invest in human resources software—it will not only allow you to test different employee strategies, but also actually empower employees to take control of their career paths.

Here's how a human resources information system encourages employee engagement by making every person in your organization feel personally responsible and excited about your goals.

Oftentimes, employees will have to email HR professionals whenever they need to modify their personal information. This process can be time-consuming and tedious and leave the employees feeling like they have no control over their profiles.

With an HRIS’ employee and manager self-service options, employees can log in and keep their personal information up to date. They don't have to rely on an already overwhelmed HR professional. Both the HR department and the employee will feel less stressed knowing that the system is keeping track of and handling all the data for them.

Employees need to feel like they're important to your company. With employee and manager self-service through HRIS, companies can provide opportunities for employees to have their voices heard and contribute to strategic company decisions. Employees can send questions directly to HR on the HRIS and receive answers in a timely manner. No longer are they waiting around disengaged because they feel they have no say in the company’s future.

With an HRIS program that enables employee or manager self-service, people are able to browse through training courses and further skills of their own volition. They can learn more about diverse topics that interest them—potentially leading to a horizontal move in the company—or dive deeper into skills pertaining to their current job. As they become more educated, they may be motivated to snag a promotion or better position.

With an HRIS program, employees are able to set their own goals outside of annual goals created by a manager. Perhaps they want to finish a course by the end of the year, become involved with a certain project, or bring up a new idea to senior management. When employees are given the opportunity to create their own goals, they will feel more empowered to achieve them.

HR software is not only going to increase the level of employee engagement among everyone on your team. It's also going to make processes simpler for the HR department and support efficiency. When things run more smoothly in HR, the entire company benefits.

High employee engagement is going to make a world of difference at your company. It's going to improve productivity, save you precious resources and time, and contribute to the longevity of your organization.

Want to learn more about improving employee engagement? Check out Cornerstone's HR Suite of Products.