By Michael Gidlewski

Engaged employees work with passion and feel a profound connection to their company. They drive innovation and move the organization forward.

Non-engaged employees are essentially “checked out.” They’re sleepwalking through their workday, putting time – not energy or passion – into their work.

Actively disengaged employees aren’t just unhappy at work: They’re busy acting out their unhappiness. Every day, these workers undermine what their engaged co-workers accomplish.

What can leaders do to increase employee engagement?

The Gallup Organization, one the world’s foremost research firms on the subject of engagement, has studied engagement in hundreds of organizations worldwide. Gallup’s research shows that those with the highest engagement levels excel in four areas:

1. Strategy and Leadership Philosophy: Leaders provide a clear vision to their employees of how engagement connects to the organization’s mission and growth strategy. They also demonstrate that they are totally committed to promoting and supporting all engagement improvement initiatives established throughout the organization.
2. Accountability and Performance: Highly engaged organizations hold all executives and managers accountable for their team’s engagement levels. The most successful organizations find ways to integrate engagement scores into each manager’s performance evaluation.
3. Communication: Leaders in the best organizations make every effort to continually communicate and emphasize engagement on an ongoing basis. They also strive to identify successes and best practices and share them with the entire organization.
4. Development and Ongoing Learning Opportunities: The world’s top-performing organizations have a clearly defined and comprehensive strategy for employee development. They take development seriously and experience the positive outcomes that result from giving all employees continual opportunities to learn and grow.

Organizations that excel in each of these four dimensions experience tremendous benefits. They are more productive and profitable. They are more likely to retain top talent and attract more qualified job candidates. They enjoy lower work-related safety issues and inventory shrinkage due to employee theft. Perhaps best of all, they experience higher levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Thus, the level of employee engagement in your organization determines whether people are productive and stay with you — or leave to join your competition. Employee connection to strategy and goals, acknowledgment for work well done, and a culture of learning and development will foster high levels of engagement.

Without a workplace environment that promotes high levels of engagement, your turnover will increase and efficiency will decline, leading to lower customer loyalty and decreased stakeholder value.

Ultimately, because the cost of poor employee engagement will be detrimental to your success, it is vital for you as a leader to identify and develop positive, effective people managers and to adopt workplace policies and practices that focus on employee development, well-being, health, and work/life balance.

Next week, I will discuss hiring the right people for the job.

Click here to download your copy of The Productivity Playbook to help you with increasing employee engagement to maximize productivity and improve your results.

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Michael Gidlewski is President of West Chester-based Achievement Unlimited, Inc., as well as a growth catalyst and motivational speaker. He works with motivated business owners and entrepreneurs to clearly define the elements of what they dearly want their businesses and lives to look like, then helps them connect all the moving parts that make up those visions to consistent action and habits. Michael can be reached at 610-793-6609 or via e-mail at michael@achievable.com.

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