Practices for Engaging the 21st Century Workforce: Challenges of Talent Management in a Changing Workplace

4. The Imperative of Employee Engagement for Competitive Success in the 21^st Century

In the highly complex and competitive world of the 21^st century, companies need innovative management systems that engage employees to meet the demands of a highly demanding and customer-driven marketplace. As a result, defining and measuring employee engagement have become a booming business for consulting businesses. However, engagement is an elusive construct, and there seem to be as many different measures of engagement as there are consultants. Given the strategic importance of engagement, it behooves business leaders to get this right.

Many of the current measures of engagement include both the conditions and outcomes of engagement. As a result, organizations ...