Only 21% of employees engaged

Only 10 percent of employees around the globe believe senior management treats people as the most important part of the organization - this according to a Towers Perrin survey of nearly 90,000 workers worldwide.

The survey goes on to say that just 21 percent of the employees surveyed are engaged in their work, meaning they're willing to go the extra mile to help their companies succeed. Thirty-eight percent are partly to fully disengaged. Towers Perrin has dubbed this the "engagement gap".

Firms with the highest percentage of engaged employees increased operating income by 19 percent and earnings per share by 28 percent.

It’s clear that the performance improvement opportunity for businesses today is in accessing discretionary effort and lessening the “engagement gap”.

People are fully involved in, and enthusiastic about their work when they understand how they personally contribute to the organization’s goals and objectves. Supervisors and managers are best placed to make that connection for employees – far more so then say - the employee newsletter.

Are we investing our communication dollars in the right place?