Employee Engagement Still Needed

Jeri Denniston, Chief Marketing Strategist, Denner Group International

Takeways: Employee engagement is still lacking in organizations. Job satisfaction numbers have not changed much since 2010. More than 85% are actively disengaged and have no passion for their jobs.

In 2010 I published an article (Employee Satisfaction a Critical Component of Success) about how employee satisfaction is directly tied to productivity and organizational success. The research then stated that the majority of workers are actively disengaged from their work, and only 25% felt a strong attachment to their employer.

Recently, I read an article written by Eric Siu of the Globe and Mail in Canada, “How to Ïncrease Employee Satisfaction for the Long Haul,” and it states that “a Gallup report demonstrates that 63 percent of employees are ‘not engaged’ in their jobs. This essentially means that 87% have no passion for their jobs,” he says.

It looks as though little has changed in five years, and my article is still relevant.

Siu’s article goes on to state that many factors contribute to employee satisfaction, and that employees are most satisfied when their four core needs are met: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.

I addressed these in my article, too, focusing on elements from Matthew Kelly’s book, The Dream Manager and using the Haines Centre’s Systems Thinking Approach to help employees create a plan to accomplish their dreams. In Kelly’s book, he demonstrates how helping employees achieve their inner most dreams actually has a positive impact on their work. Whether the dream is to own a house or participate in the New York Marathon, he cites examples of company successes when they helped employees achieve their personal dreams.

The book impressed me enough to create a special planning model and Employee Satisfaction Assessment which are described in my article. Having read Eric Siu’s article, I see that it still has relevance today. You can download my article from our website to delve further into this issue. Matthew Kelly’s book is also available through our Amazon bookstore, also on our website.

After you read the article, please let me know your thoughts. Connect with me on LinkedIn if we aren’t already connected. Just let me know in the message that you’re following up about the Employee Satisfaction article. Or send me a message through LinkedIn. I look forward to hearing your thoughts!