“Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success” – Henry Ford
Teamwork is the elixir of an organization’s success. Employees are more productive, happy and perform better when they work in teams. This makes it vital for business organizations to work on employee engagement and team management – the ability of the organization to bind all team members together and regulate their work. Good team management sets up the foundation for a strong team and steers all team members through unreasonable conflicts.
Employee engagement and good teamwork are naturally interrelated. Given below are some points explaining why employee engagement plays a crucial role in team management:
What Makes Employee Engagement So Important?
1. Engaged employees are more collaborative
When binding two or more things together, it is always advantageous to have a good quality of binding material. The same is true for binding employees together in a team. It is always beneficial to have employees who are more collaborative in nature. Engaged employees have an amicable aura around them. They radiate positivity and warmth. These characteristics make them more collaborative in nature.
With having them in the team, organizations don’t have to worry about team politics or conflicts. This is because engaged employees are excellent team players who are far away from such negative traits. Not only this, their presence positively impacts everyone else in the team, and the occurrence of team conflicts becomes rare.
2. Engaged employees are happier
Engaged employees are passionate about their work. They enjoy working and don’t take it as a burden. As a result, they remain happier than disengaged employees. Their happiness radiates through their smiling faces and energetic demeanor. Further, when a team is composed of engaged, happy employees, the environment remains positive and leads to good team performance.
Even if some member of the team doesn’t feel happy, the company of engaged, happy colleagues ignites happiness in his heart. This is because happiness is just like energy. It passes from one person to another. So, having engaged employees in the team can help organizations cultivate happier and better-performing teams.
3. Engaged employees are energetic and enthusiastic
Engaged employees are passionate about their work. Their passion for work fuels their dedication and devotion to their organization. Both these factors together make them more energetic and enthusiastic about work. As a result, they always meet deadlines and never give their managers a chance to complain.
Further, when engaged employees work with their colleagues in a team, they radiate their energy and enthusiasm to them. As a result, the entire team becomes more energetic and enthusiastic in nature. So, organizations can easily cultivate energetic and enthusiastic teams through employee engagement.
4. Engaged employees are more productive
A highly productive team is essential for an organization to soar high in success. This makes ensuring good team productivity one of the major aspects of team management. Although the task is challenging, it becomes effortless when an organization has a team of engaged employees because engaged employees are more productive.
Gallup has also highlighted this finding in a study. It states that highly engaged business units experience a 17% rise in their productivity. So, if every individual member of a team is engaged, individual productivity will be high, and so will be the productivity of the team. This way, employee engagement is instrumental in enhancing team productivity.
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5. Engaged employees are self-motivated
When a team is motivated, it completes work in time, the quality of work is impeccable, making the final results extraordinary. Thus, a motivated team is an aspiration of every business organization. They can bring this aspiration to fulfillment through employee engagement.
This is because engaged employees are self-motivated. They are self-driven to produce excellent results and take their organization to heights of success. So, with engaged employees in the team, organizations no longer have to put much effort into motivating the team.
6. Engaged employees exhibit lower absenteeism
The absence of a single teammate is enough to disturb the productivity of the entire team. This makes lowering employee absenteeism an essential part of team management. But, when an organization has engaged employees, it doesn’t have to put extra efforts to reduce employee absenteeism. This is because engaged employees are responsible, and they realize that their absence can prevent the entire team from completing the work targets well.
So, engaged employees exhibit lower absenteeism. This finding has also been highlighted by Gallup, in one of its reports. It states that workplaces with highly engaged workforces witness 41% lower employee absenteeism. So, employee engagement can help organizations reduce absenteeism and manage work teams better.
7. Engaged Employees Are More Responsible
Teamwork involves the sharing of responsibilities between the team members. So, a significant portion of team management is about dividing responsibilities between team members and ensuring that they shoulder them well. But, when a team is full of engaged employees, the organization doesn’t have to put much effort in this direction.
Engaged employees are more responsible than the disengaged ones and shoulder their responsibilities well. Once a task is assigned to them, they go every extra mile to complete it with perfection. As a result, they never let their team suffer because of them. Moreover, they are always ready to help their teammates with their work.
High Employee Engagement = Excellent Teamwork
Teamwork is the fundamental requirement of every business organization aspiring to achieve success. Further, good team management is the basic requirement for cultivating a strong team that can strive tirelessly for the company’s success.
To bring excellent team management into force, employee engagement is the key. It molds individuals to become the best and most productive version of themselves. This way, through the betterment of individual team members, it leads to the betterment of an entire team. So, for impeccable team management, organizations should work on enhancing employee engagement.
