Blessing White

The Engagement Equation: Leadership Strategies for an Inspired Workforce by Christoper Rice, Fraswer Marlow and Mary Ann Masarech

Three authors from Blessing White have worked together to produce The Engagement Equation. This a comprehensive book on employee engagement and leadership/organizational actions to promote engagement.

It is not an ideal book for the casual reader or person looking to have a general understanding of engagement because of how much is covered from the X model of engagement to measuring ROI but it is an ideal book for a VP, Director, or Manager responsible for developing, organizing and coordinating an organization’s employee engagement approach and program.

Here were 6 snippets that caught my eye:

N=1. Engagement is fundamentally an individual equation yet everyone owns a part of the equation.

Daily. To work, engagement must become a daily priority at work

Plates. We can feel like plate spinners at work but this will exhaust everyone and the plates will eventually spin out of control so we must learn to spin our own plate

Max. Full engagement represents an alignment of maximum satisfaction fo the individual with maximum contribution for the organization.

Talk. Dialogue is a key to work towards fuller employee engagement as we hold ongoing conversations with all employees about results, alignment, and engagement.

CARE. Coach, Align, Recognize and Engage.

This is a fine book for a comprehensive understanding of employee engagement. It would make a helpful contribution to an employee engagement library.

David Zinger is a global employee engagement expert who uses the 10 block pyramid of employee engagement as a practical and tactical approach to enhancing and increasing employee engagement for both individuals and organizations.

What stood out for you in Employee Engagement last year?

Here is what stood out for me last year in employee engagement:

The UK Engage for Success Movement. It was incredible to see the UK rally behind employee engagement with the Engage for Success Movement. This ranged from more work on the business case for engagement and a resource rich website to hundreds of events and actions around the UK. I encourage you to visit the Engage for Success website to learn what they did in 2012 and where they are going in 2013.

Social Media Growth in Employee Engagement. Twitter, Linked In, and Facebook have been buzzing with talk about employee engagement in 2012. I remember five years ago on Twitter when there might be one post on employee engagement every 5 hours and now it can be one every minute.

Employee Engagement Pairings. Many of the large consultancies have been pairing employee engagement with another key variable. For example:

Gallup = Employee Engagement + Wellbeing
Hay Group = Employee Engagement + Enablement
BlessingWhite = Employee Engagement + Energy

Growth the of Employee Engagement Network. The Employee Engagement Network continues to grow at about 20 to 30 members a week and has reached over 5500 members in just under 5 years.

More Books. There have been a lot of books written on employee engagement in 2012 and many books on leadership and management ensure they address employee engagement in their contents. Just a few of the recent books that have landed on my desk in 2012 were:

Susan Walker, Employee Engagement and Communication Research
David Bowles and Cary Cooper, The High Engagement Work Culture
Christopher Rice, Fraser Marlow and Mary Ann Masarech, The Engagement Equation
Timothy Clark, The Employee Engagement Mindset

Postgraduate Certificate in Employee Engagement. Katie Truss from the University of Kent has lead the way in creating a university certificate in employee engagement.

Searching for Employee Engagement becomes a hit. About eight years ago there were about 200,000 results found when searching “employee engagement” in Google. At the end of 2012 there were: 8, 380,000.

Employee Engagement Humor. John Junson offers a weekly cartoon on employee engagement on the Employee Engagement Network and Dilbert made fun of engagement at least three times last year. We are growing in the ability to take our topic seriously and to take ourselves lightly.

This was a top of mind list of a few items that stood out for me about employee engagement. What stood out for you in employee engagement in 2012?

David Zinger is a global employee engagement expert already scheduled to work in New York, Mumbai, Delhi, Berlin, and Chicago in early 2013. Contact him today to offer education, speaking or consulting services to increase employee engagement where you work.

The Engagement Equation Snapshot

8 Developments That Stood Out in Employee Engagement in 2012