Build It

1Understanding Employee Engagement

Chapter Objectives

In this chapter, we will:

• Establish the proven link between employee engagement and competitive advantage.
• Define employee engagement and understand how engaged employees add value.
• Discuss the changes that technology is bringing to our economy that make action urgent and critical.

Key Points

• This is a practical book based on real company experiences for anyone who wants to improve their business, regardless of their role or job level.
• You will have to rebel against standard practice—the status quo has failed and rebelling is the only way to make a difference.
• Don't confuse employee engagement with employee happiness; they are fundamentally different.
• Don't get hung up on jargon—engagement, experience, organizational health; it's not important. Just get started on the journey.

Introduction

A group of companies has twice the stock market performance of their peers. They innovate more, deliver better customer service and have half the employee turnover. They rebel against the status quo by treating people differently, and they've been rewarded with productivity and bottom‐line results that leave other companies behind. They are the companies with the most engaged workforces—measured and tracked by numerous surveys and indexes, with the data proving the connection to real business results.

These companies have found a way to build an engaging culture—a culture where hard‐working people thrive in jobs with challenge ...