Here’s why employee engagement is an essential metric when measuring an organization’s performance — and how you can accurately determine engagement levels within your own company.

Employee engagement is defined by an employee’s personal commitment to an organization and the achievement of its topline objectives. Unfortunately, according to data collected by Gallup, employee engagement levels are at an all-time low: only 13% of employees worldwide report that they are actively engaged at work.

In a competitive and rapidly evolving marketplace, fostering employee engagement is more important than ever. Read on to learn how engagement directly correlates to the success of a business — and how you can measure and promote engagement within your own organization.

Why Employee Engagement is Critical to the Success of Your Organization

Contrary to what you may have heard, the differences between accountability vs. responsibility are not negligible. While responsibility may be seen as a kind of duty that one must fulfill, according to the New York Times bestseller The Oz Principle, accountability is the “personal choice to rise above one’s circumstances and demonstrate the ownership necessary for achieving desired results.”

When employees are actively engaged in their daily work and committed to meeting benchmark goals, they are more inclined to proactively pinpoint problems, take ownership for solving them, develop creative solutions, and do what it takes to deliver on Key Results. As a result, companies with highly engaged workforces outperform their competitors by upwards of 145% of total earnings per share. In other words: employee engagement is essential to maintain your organization’s profitability.

Meanwhile, disengagement is often a byproduct of low job satisfaction, lack of trust, and unfulfilled commitments, and can have damaging effects on the organization at large. Low employee engagement creates a lack of accountability that can impede performance and the achievement of Key Results. Left unchecked, these negative effects can reverberate on an organization-wide scale: when employees are not happy in the workplace, aren’t invested in the company and its objectives, and don’t feel fulfilled in their work, they may seek opportunities elsewhere, creating a talent vacuum for your organization to fill. The repercussions of this loss are substantial, which is why nearly 9 in 10 human resource leaders cite improving retention as a critical priority.

Obtaining Higher Visibility Into Employee Engagement

Ultimately, employee engagement directly impacts the success of your organization because it corresponds to levels of workplace accountability — and thus, the productivity and performance of your employees.

In order to achieve higher levels of employee engagement, corporate leaders must first gauge existing rates of engagement within their organizations. But how can leaders pinpoint something as seemingly nebulous as employees’ commitment to their company?

The new Partners in Leadership Workplace Accountability Index is the first-ever product with the ability to quantify levels of employee engagement and accountability within your organization. Using critical indicators of engagement such as personal psychological ownership to measure internal consistency, the index provides heightened visibility into employee engagement and its concrete effects on organizational accountability.

The Workplace Accountability Index can help leaders determine the areas in which specific teams may be struggling to deliver on results. With sophisticated data in hand, leaders are equipped with the essential knowledge they need to boost employee engagement, retention, and performance within their company. Additionally, the Index correlates to your organization’s ability to handle speed to market, weather changes in your industry, and simply remain agile enough to survive in today’s market. Where does your organization stand?

Learn more about how the Workplace Accountability Index can help you increase employee engagement and achieve better results.