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Practitioners and academics have argued that an engaged workforce can create competitive advantage. These authors say that it is imperative for leaders to identify the level of engagement in their organization and implement behavioural strategies that will facilitate full engagement. In clear terms, they describe how leaders can do that.
A professor in a recent executive education program on leadership elicited a lot of laughs by telling the following joke: "A CEO was asked how many people work in his company: 'About half of them,' he responded." After the session, several participants put a more serious face on the problem when, while chatting, they bemoaned the fact that, in their organization, a significant number of people had mentally "checked out."
Quite clearly, CEOs and managers should be very concerned about a waste of time, effort and resources in their organizations. The reason is simple: If people are not engaged, how can these same leaders attain those business objectives that are critical to improving organizational performance?
What do we mean by employee engagement? How much does a lack of employee engagement cost an organization? What steps can leaders take to make employees want to give it their best? These and other questions are the focus of this article.
What is employee engagement?
An engaged employee is a person who is fully involved in, and enthusiastic about, his or her work. In his book, Getting Engaged: The New Workplace Loyalty, author Tim Rutledge explains that truly engaged employees are attracted to, and inspired by, their work ("I want to do this"), committed ("I am dedicated to the success of what I am doing"), and fascinated ("I love what I am doing"). Engaged employees care about the future of the company and are willing to invest the discretionary effort - exceeding duty's call - to see that the organization succeeds. In his book, Rutledge urged managers to implement retention plans so that they could keep their top talent. The need to do so is supported by a 1998 McKinsey & Co. study entitled The War for Talent that reported that a shortage of skilled employees was an emerging trend. Today, there is widespread agreement among academics and practitioners that engaged employees are those who are emotionally...