“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”
– John Quincy Adams

“View life as a continuous learning experience.”
– David Gergen

If you asked a dozen business leaders to list their goals for the year, chances are you’d hear about increasing sales, improving productivity and increasing earnings from most or all of them. If you asked those leaders how they plan to achieve their goals, and they would probably talk about implementing a strategic plan, driving the goals down through the organization and similar strategies. In other words, the language would be soft and fuzzy, lacking the clarity needed to really drive results.

And few, if any, of those business leaders would list increasing employee engagement as a strategy for achieving business goals. Yet a number of studies – most notably the Towers Watson Global Workforce Study – have shown that companies whose employees are fully engaged in their work outperform companies whose employees are not engaged. Employee engagement increases operating income and earnings and reduces costly turnover.

So, what does employee engagement really mean? A 2006 study by the Conference Board reviewed twelve major engagement studies and developed the following definition of employee engagement as “a heightened emotional connection that an employee feels for his or her organization, that influences him or her to exert greater discretionary effort to his or her work”.

Now consider this: According to the Gallup Poll 2009 National Q12 Engagement Survey, only 12 per cent of Americans feel fully engaged in their jobs. Nineteen percent are not at all engaged and the other 69% are somewhere in between – not completely disconnected from their work, but not giving their best effort. Employee disengagement costs the U.S. economy $292 to $355 billion dollars every year, which works out to $2,730 per worker per year. How much is employee disengagement costing your business? Grab a calculator and do the math.

What’s the reason for these alarming levels of disengagement among American workers? You might expect that dissatisfaction with compensation is the culprit but, in fact, money usually has little or nothing to do with engagement. More often than not, employees become disengaged because of a management problem. Working for a manager who doesn’t provide regular coaching and feedback, doesn’t encourage employee growth and development and doesn’t inspire employees to excel breeds apathy. As employees start to feel unappreciated, they begin to daydream about better opportunities and their productivity declines. As a consultant, the frightening part is, a large percentage of companies do more than pay lip service to employee engagement. Rarely do I see it as part of a strategic plan that cascades down through the organization.

Do your employees love their jobs? Do they come in each morning eager to take on the challenges of the day? Are they fully engaged in their work? If not, one of the best ways to achieve your sales and earnings goals year over year is to improve employee engagement. Employee engagement can and should be measured on an ongoing basis. Make sure your leaders are aligned with your mission and vision (you do have these in writing and shared with everyone, right?), invest in developing their management skills and hold them accountable for results. Not sure where to start? An independent consultant can conduct an organizational audit and leadership assessments to help you identify areas where employee disengagement is bleeding your business. These initial investments will pay tremendous dividends in a more engaged and productive workforce and a stronger bottom line.