I want to bring to your attention a national scandal that you’re probably not aware of. That around a quarter of all employees in the UK are disengaged from their jobs, meaning that they have no interest in their work and even hate it. They make little or no contribution to the enterprises they work for, and some may even be disruptive. Not only are these people often stressed and unhappy, but their companies make little or no contribution to their national economies. They are being carried by employees who have higher levels of engagement. Unfortunately less than a fifth of all employees are highly engaged.

If we could get more employees engaged with their enterprises, national economies would be strengthened and the strain on the NHS and other healthcare systems reduced. So what has to be done to improve engagement? It’s not about changing employees, it’s about changing management. Employees in highly engaged companies say that Management always trust and respect them and are open with them. They say they are great places to work.

Unfortunately in a lot of companies that trust has broken down. Not only have bad management attitudes developed in the relentless search for performance, but the situation has been made even worse by the closure of final salary pension schemes and by resentment at the sky-high salaries and bonuses of some bosses. The contempt for staff has fed through into contempt for us as customers who are expected to fight our way through automated telephone answering systems and to be confronted by  bored or offhand call-centre staff.

Fortunately, evidence is piling up that companies with highly engaged employees are hugely more successful than their peers, and some hard-nosed managements are beginning to see that managing their people with greater respect is the only way to go in a tough economic environment. They are beginning to see that the often-derided soft skills can be turned into hard cash.

Copyright Peter Burton 2008 – all rights reserved