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Engagement seems to be the buzzword these days, but many worry that despite its vernacular popularity, it's in short supply. Workplace research, conference agendas and business journals carry a consistent message that engagement is critical for business success, but recent surveys show that only a fraction of the U.S. workforce is highly engaged - Gallup estimates as low as 26 percent; Watson Wyatt, as high as 57 percent. It's becoming apparent that knowing how to create and sustain employee engagement is a crucial part of successful total rewards strategies.
Today's increased focus on engagement is due in part to the turbulent changes, organizational churn and cost cutting of the last few years. As organizations find they need to ask even more of employees than in the past, they worry whether they will be able to keep the commitment of their top talent and whether employees will indeed be willing to work harder to help the business succeed.
Companies have reason to worry. In the wake of tough decisions that examined every expense to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of operations and investments, few organizations have asked how the current work environment affects the commitment of their workers. And even fewer have made plans to leverage and grow employee engagement.
Employee commitment, or engagement, as it is more recently called, is not just about having enthusiastic, happy workers. Rather, it refers to a well-defined, research-based cluster of employee attitudes and behaviors that can be measured and has been shown to make a difference to business results. Moreover, engagement is something that organizations either foster or undermine. It is more influenced by management practices and features of the work environment than by employee demographics or personality. So if a company is not intentionally building commitment, chances are it is minimizing it - or even crushing it.
The Products of Engagement
Recent studies have made it clear that high employee engagement translates into increased discretionary effort, higher productivity and lower turnover at the employee level, as well as increased customer satisfaction and loyalty, profitability and shareholder value for the organization. According to a 2004 Hewitt study, companies with the highest employee engagement levels have a four-year average total shareholder return (TSR) of 20 percent or higher, nearly...