By Brenan German, Founder and President of Bright Talent
As a Gallup alum, I am a fan of the organization and frequently share their articles, which I find very insightful. Ben Wigert, Ph.D, MBA and Ryan Pendell of Gallup recently published an important article on the seven workplace challenges for 2025 that is worth reading. It speaks to the importance of employee engagement, which is at historic lows.
As an HR leader-turned-business-owner, I have been focused this past year on finding ways to bridge the gap between financial investments in HR and capturing the ROI of employee engagement. What I've found is there's a significant gap between how HR leadership and the CEO/CFO of an organization view the value of employee experience -- and how that view, in turn, influences engagement.
An investment in employee experience is like compound interest to the bottom line: when engagement improves, revenue and profit lift as well. To understand the right investment, you must start with the cost of engagement.
This article, written in 2017 by Paul Petrone How to Calculate the Cost of Employee Disengagement, articulates the actual dollar cost of engagement. This creates a baseline for HR leaders to use to formulate the cost for their organization. Coupled with turnover costs, an HR leader can use this data to demonstrate to the CEO/CFO how investments in employee experience will lift engagement, reduce turnover and directly impact the bottom line.
In this way, HR leaders can build a clear business case for increasing investment in employee experience and create a situation where employee engagement becomes a competitive advantage. It's this kind of thinking -- and action -- that can help close the perception gap between HR leaders and CEO/CFOs and garner more investment in employee engagement initiatives.