Engaged employees are essential, critical to having a successful business. This is not a surprise to us. But how? Establishing and strengthening emotional bonds between the organization and employees is not a new concept by any means. We know that organizations and leaders must set (and communicate!) clear visions and goals; they need to encourage the spread of this vision throughout the company.

“To capture the hearts of our employees, it is essential that we tell them what we stand for and where we are going,” according to Jim Harris in his book Getting Employees to Fall in Love With Your Company. Employee engagement is not a new buzz word or an old adage that is being revisited. Simply stated it is an approach to business and employees that is producing exceptional results. Simply having a mission statement or employee program does not constitute change. Mentalities and attitudes must be altered for the better in order for this belief of employee engagement to take hold and thrive within an organization. Proper training, marketing and support are mandatory for engagement to thrive in any corporate culture.

Go beyond catchy slogans and shallow efforts to keep employees on-target. True employee engagement not only requires, but demands a comprehensive, strategic approach that creates positive, lasting results when implemented effectively. Employee engagement encourages productive and dedicated team members with vested interest in the company, managers motivated by positive results and a bottom line that benefits from increased employee retention and efficient operations. Simply stated, employee engagement is vital to building and maintaining a successful organization. And the good news – once an this culture is created, engagement becomes ‘the way we do things around here’ and it does not have to be recreated year after year. The best place to start is with an assessment to measure engagement. Measuring your employee’s passion about work and the work environment can be as simple as issuing a survey with a few scales questions around the ideas of:

• Job satisfaction
• Productivity
• Quality of peers
• Likelihood to change jobs
• Likelihood to recommend company products or services
• Likelihood to recommend as a great place to work
• Satisfaction with compensation & benefits

Use a scale (like the Likert scale) to measure levels of engagement and don’t forget to gather compliments in addition to concerns. Often times open ended questions can provide invaluable insight to your organization to learn areas for improvement and areas that are working. Engaged employees are a win-win for organizations; providing a better bottom line and a happier, healthier work environment for all.