Engaged Employees Are Not Enough
Employee engagement is a work behavior characterized by high levels of commitment, enthusiasm and purposeful involvement in one’s work and the organization. Engaged employees perform better and stay in the organization longer, and increased engagement often correlates with greater productivity. This is especially important in the insurance industry because even modest improvements in productivity can translate into increases in incremental value. For example, consider a state-wide insurance company with 4,000 employees that has an average revenue-per-employee of $1,000,000. If individual productivity improves by only 5%, that productivity gain is worth $200 million.
Unfortunately, an engaged employee is not always an optimally productive employee. Individuals change over time, which means that being engaged is not necessarily a permanent state. One’s talents may not be a good fit for the role he or she currently occupies, or the work to be done may not match an individual’s need for tasks that foster growth. Particularly in the insurance industry, with its systematic nature and lack of feedback or innovation opportunities, employees can feel stuck in a repetitive environment that does not welcome change.