According to PricewaterhouseCoopers it costs a year’s wages to recruit a member of staff and train them to the level of their predecessor and yet executives are still too busy to get it. Executives don’t pay enough attention to engagement – US statistics variously state that 66% of employees feel disengaged or that 60% are actively looking for new work and yet retention of talent is still underplayed in many boardrooms.
Let’s not just think about the cost of replacement but how much they cost when they are employed. A disengaged employer is far less effective in their role than an engaged employer, Keith Ayres notes that while a disengaged employee may be giving only 50% effort, we still pay them 100% of their salary. This means that a significant portion of payroll costs are valueless to the organisation as there is no effect. How much of your wage bill is frittered away without contributing to your bottom line?
If the average salary of an employee in a 500 person organization is £25,000 then the annual cost of disengagement is over £4 million and £17, 200 a day. I think that deserves a CEOs and Board’s attention.
Instead of dwelling on the doom and gloom, consider another cost: opportunity. What would your world look like if instead of just studying your employees through your annual survey, you spent time actually engaging them in conversation about what they care about? What if you involved them in decisions that affect their life at work and the welfare of the company at large? What if you empowered them to do, to connect with each other, recognize one another for great work and truly collaborate? What could those sorts of employees do for your success?
Well this is the sort of opportunity that would be identified with Sampson Hall’s Gordian Model. Boards would be able to exploit this and many other opportunities which would be identified in the process as they drive their organisations to success. https://www.sampsonarmand.co.uk/services/our-metrics/the-gordian-model.html