10 ideas to prove the ROI of employee engagement

3 min read

I speak to dozens of business owners every week, and a key part of my job is helping them prove the ROI of employee engagement to their boss. 

We look at a lot of factors, including turnover and retention rate, improved communication across the business and straight outputs of our programs such as eCards sent or amount of money saved through employee benefits. 

Improving employee engagement will benefit so many areas of the business, and we're here to help every step of the way. But as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Here's a few of my top stats to show your executive team that employee engagement isn't just good for people, it's critical for business. 

Your business case for employee engagement should be able to answer the questions: Why now, why this initiative and why is it so important to our organisation’s success? Hopefully, the stats above can help.

The most successful business cases also always include the high-level facts around ROI – tangible measures like sales and revenue – and VOI – intangible measures like engagement and turnover. At the end of the day, the decisions-makers in your business want one question answered: WIIFM? (what’s in it for me?) or in other words, what will your actions/project do for the business?

Demonstrating ROI and VOI should include:

• Industry research on the benefits and the bottom line.
• Price vs Value: Every investment comes with a cost, but if you can prove a high return on that cost, your proposal’s value becomes much more attractive.
• How to implement a solution with a high multiple return: The best proof of this can be to show a return per employee, for example, and then multiply that number by your company size.
• The ROI and VOI for your particular business: Ask solution providers to show you similar organisations so you know what “good” looks like and can show how a product or program has positively affected others. 

Need more research to help build your business case, or want some support along the way? Download our latest eBook for a step-by-step guide to building a compelling business case for employee engagement, or get in touch with my team: