More on Engagement

Recently I wrote about the importance of engaging with customers and made the point that this would be more important to the success of an agency in the future than ever before.

In his book “The Coming Jobs War” Jim Clifton, CEO of The Gallup Organization posits that the key to entrepreneurial growth are “engaged employees” and that the killer of businesses are “actively disengage employees”.   According to Gallup’s research approximately 19% of the U.S. workforce is “actively disengage” while 28% per cent is “engaged” and 53% is “not engaged”.

He says that “the 53% of not engaged workers are not hostile or disruptive, and they are not troublemakers.  They are just there, killing time with little or no concern about customers, productivity, profitability, waste, safety, mission and purpose of the teams, or developing customers.”

“The 28% of engaged employees are the best colleagues.  They cooperate to build an organization, institution or agency.  They are the creative force behind everything good that happens…they are the only people…who create new customers.

So, most employees are punching the clock and biding their time.  They aren’t productive but not actively harmful while only about a quarter of employees are helping to grow the organization.  What about the others?

“The 19% of actively disengaged employees who are there to dismantle and destroy your company.”    Shocking isn’t it?

Gallup has devised twelve questions (available in the book) to measure employee engagement.   Clifton says that they have seen that employee engagement can be doubled and that this is the key to explosive growth.  He also recommends ruthlessly pruning actively disengaged employees and especially managers.

How are your employees?  Are they engaged, actively disengaged or not engaged?  Knowing, and creating strategies to increase engagement may well be the key to the future of your business.