Engaging at Work

s your workplace highly dysfunctional or fully engaged? The answer to that question could spell the difference between success and failure for your company.

Employees who are fully engaged in their work contribute far more to a company than those who go through the workday in a detached, angry or dispirited manner. It’s not too hard to see the difference; employees who are engaged feel a close bond with the company they work for, eagerly recommend it as a good place to work, and get more out of their work than just a paycheck. Unengaged workers tend to be poor contributors and display counter-productive behaviors such as frequent arguing and complaining.

Employers should care a great deal whether their workers are fully engaged. According to a study recently completed for Dale Carnegie Training, high levels of employee engagement lead to lower turnover rates, higher productivity rates and more innovation.

If a workplace is already infected with high levels of toxic behavior, how can executives and managers turn that around? The first and most important factor is for company leaders to display the very traits they want to encourage: maintain a positive attitude at all times, be fully engaged with your company’s issues and challenges, and avoid counterproductive activities such as excessive criticism and micromanaging.

Another key is to make workers feel invested in the company by including them in the decision-making process in a meaningful way. Managers must stop dictating and start cooperating. Focus on interpersonal relationships and allow workers a strong voice in designing goals and the methods used to reach them.

Other ways executives may lead the transformation include asking employees questions about what they think of the operation, identifying individual strengths among employees, recognizing achievement, and providing effective training.

Dale Carnegie Training can help companies in all of these areas, with programs tailored to the individual company. One example is TATA Teleservices Ltd., which was growing so rapidly the company hired almost 2,000 new employees in a short period of time, and hastily put them through a bare-bones training program. That led to poor performance, since the recruits lacked confidence in their own abilities and in company management. Dale Carnegie Training designed a custom two-day leadership building program, and the company reported the new training increased performance levels and interpersonal skills.

More such success stories may be found at our website.
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Take a look around at your workplace. Are most of the people smiling and eager to contribute? If not, it may be time to take action to more fully engage your workforce, which is, after all, your No. 1 asset.

Employee Engagment White Paper


Dale Carnegie of Western CT Website