The Value of Engagement

20% of employees are engaged. Having a positive emotional connection to their work and others, they gladly contribute discretionary effort to improve their organization.

66% of employees are not engaged. Emotionally checked out, they just show up. With little interest in improvement, they do the minimum needed in order to be paid.

14% of employees actively sabotage your organization. They undermine others and poison your culture. While it may be difficult at first, some may still be able to positively respond to employee engagement, employee development and strategic initiatives.

What Does an Engaged Employee Look Like?

In the What is Employee Engagement? articlein Forbes magazine, Kevin Kruse definesemployee engagement as the emotionalcommitment that a person has to who theywork for, who they work with and who theyserve. As humans, we are wired to care aboutsomething more than just ourselves. When

people care, engagement grows.

Engaged employees don't just work for apaycheque. They work because they believe

their work and the work of their team andorganization has purpose. They care andbecause they care, they contribute realdiscretionary effort. They do more than isasked or expected or them, they take personalresponsibility without making excuses, theywork overtime when needed and they alwaystreat those they serve like gold.

Employee engagement is more thanemployee happiness as happy employeesare not necessarily productive employees.It is also more than employee satisfactionas simply satisfied employees are less likelyto go the extra mile and may even leave anorganization for just a small bump in pay.Engaged employees are emotionally invested- they genuinely enjoy being at work - theyare productive, innovative, creative andentrepreneurial. They care, are loyal andconsistently create value.

Disengaged Employees & What They Cost You

Disengaged and actively disengagedemployees may be unhappy, hostile or evensabotage your organization. They showlittle concern for how they relate to others,complain frequently and show little interestin solutions. Disengaged employees lackinitiative and show little interest in theirpersonal growth or development. Theyrarely help others succeed. They feel littlepurpose in their work or in what their teamor organization is trying to achieve. Like badapples, disengaged employees can spoil yourculture and stop your strategy dead in itstracks.

Gallup estimates that actively disengagedemployees cost their organizations $3,400 forevery $10,000 you pay them. 2 The same studymeasures other real and lasting impacts onproduct quality, customer satisfaction, loss-timeinjuries, healthcare costs, employee morale,employee turnover and overall profitability.

The Benefits of Employee Engagement

Research by Gallup and others shows thatengaged employees deliver benefits that shouldmatter to every CEO:

• Perform 20% better than disengaged

employees. 3

• Deliver 12% higher customer engagement. 4

• Have 41% fewer quality defects and 50%fewer work-related accidents. 5

• Are 87% less likely to leave their

• Grow their productivity by 31% and theirsales by 37%. 8

• Outperform their competition by 202%. 7

Organizations with engaged employees:

• Increase their operating income by 19%, 9profit margins by 6%, 10 and earnings pershare by 147%. 11

By any measure, engagement buildsperformance. If this is true, the question quicklybecomes: How do I build engagement?

All S2S solutions build engagement 12 . Usingstrategy is a particularly excellent way to buildengagement. Strategy provides a focal pointto build engagement among all who supportyour organization – from your Board to yourleadership team, to employees, customers,partners and others.

As they develop and implement strategytogether, the people in your organization willbuild the ideas, relationships and alignmentthat will drive success. This same approachalso delivers three strategic outcomes thatonly leading organizations achieve: 13

1. Promoting a purpose and values-drivenculture.

2. Embracing an all-stakeholder perspectivein developing strategy.

3. Engaging every mind in developing andexecuting strategy.

These outcomes, achieved as you develop andimplement a great strategy, will contribute toa level of engagement that builds performanceand drives success. We would also likeyou to know that the entire S2S solutionset – Scenario Planning, The Business Idea,Strategy and Collaborative Leadership –builds engagement.

Great solutions, engagement and performance– does it get any better?

Strategic Conversation. Action. Success!