Are You Engaged in Your Job? (1/2)

Organizations that have employees that are highly engaged deliver better financial results than those that don't

Only 21 percent of workers worldwide are "engaged" - that's human-resource-speak for ready to expend some extra effort at work-while 38 percent are either disenchanted or disengaged, according to a new survey.

Engagement is not satisfaction or happiness, but the degree to which workers connect to the company emotionally, are aware of what they need to do to add value and are willing to take that action, said Julie Gebauer, a managing director with consulting firm Towers Perrin, which surveyed almost 90,000 workers in 19 countries.

"Happy employees don't necessarily create better financial results, but there is a definite link between engagement and a company's financial performance," Gebauer said.

The survey found 21 percent of workers worldwide are engaged, and another 41 percent are "enrolled," which means they're on the road to engagement.

More than 80 percent of the engaged employees say they contribute to the quality of company products, services and customer satisfaction, while only 40 percent of disengaged workers agree.

Engagement helps retention too: About 50 percent of engaged employees say they have no plans to leave their company versus 15 percent of the disengaged.

The fact that almost 80 percent of workers are less-than-engaged is likely costing companies money, Gebauer said.

Financial results

"The notion of engagement is really a dollars-and-cents issue," said Gebauer. Organizations that have employees that are highly engaged deliver better financial results than those that don't.

In a separate study, Towers Perrin assessed data on 40 global companies over a three-year period, measuring employee engagement at a certain point and then looking at the companies' financial results over the ensuing three years.

Companies with highly motivated workers enjoyed a 3.7 percent increase in operating margins and a 2 percent rise in net profits, while companies with a lower level of worker commitment saw both measures decrease slightly.

Vocabulary Focus

human-resource (adj) ---relating to the department of an organization that deals with finding new employees, keeping records about the employees, and helping them with any problems
disenchanted (adj) ---no longer believing in the value of something, especially after having learned of the problems with it
disengaged (adj) ---disinterested or uninvolved in an activity
dollars-and-cents (adj) ---indicating expression of an issue in terms of money