I learned so much at the recent Enterprise Engagement Alliance Networking Expo – including the fact there’s a LOT MORE to learn about the emerging field of enterprise engagement that “focuses on achieving long-term financial results for organizations by strategically aligning the management of customers, distribution partners, employees, salespeople, and all human capital.”
The staggering cost of employee disengagement
The financial impact of engagement was discussed throughout the conference. Employee engagement studies find that engaged workers typically perform better in serving customers, co-workers, and the overall organization, whereas disengaged workers drive higher operational costs resulting from low productivity and high shrinkage, absenteeism, and turnover. No surprise there … but I was shocked when I heard the Gallup survey estimate that “the lower productivity of actively disengaged workers cost the U.S. economy about $416 billion in 2009.”
Enterprise engagement training for managers
The Enterprise Engagement Alliance (EEA) feels so strongly about enterprise engagement as an organizational imperative that it launched an educational initiative to develop a formal curriculum and certification program on the topic. This program will be designed to:
“address the need for today’s executives and managers to understand engagement both in terms of their personal leadership skills and their ability to integrate the elements critical to engagement: leadership, training, multi-platform communications, technology, rewards & recognition, incentive programs. and more.”
You can find the latest updates on this educational initiative at EEA’s website along with a variety of enterprise engagement articles and resources.