Since its inception in 1997, The
Gallup Organization’s Q12 Survey has surveyed more than 4 million individuals.
The baseline results:

• 29% of employees are actively engaged in what they do,
• 55% are not engaged, and
• 16% are actively disengaged.

Those 29% engaged in their
functions are more productive, generate greater revenue, and increase customer
loyalty. When employees become engaged and positive results are achieved, issues
like patient satisfaction and employee retention get resolved.

…Gallup research shows that the overwhelming contribution to
the organization’s success is produced by engaged employees and that actively
disengaged employees actually reduce the performance of the organization in the
aggregate.
(2002, Michael
Echols, PhD., Bellevue University)

Here’s the most significant fact:
an employee’s relationship with his/her
manager is the primary driver of her/his engagement.

Research proves the familiar
statement – people join companies but people leave supervisors and
managers. The manager stimulates and continues employee engagement. The
uninspiring, disinterested, and/or ineffective manager contributes directly to
the absence of engagement.

It is old news that results come from
performance and performance comes from engagement. It is perhaps newer that
managers are the engagement catalysts for their people.

The more expertise a manager has with
the following, the more readily that manager contributes to employees’ engagement:

• Trust-building techniques
• Activities to generate true commitment
• Spontaneous leadership skills and attributes
• Communication and listening excellence
• Coaching abilities
• Conflict (esp. Generation) preclusion

How does your organization insure continuous development of your managers–seasoned and incoming–in these areas that are critical to engagement by your entire employee base?