Are C-Suite Executives Confronting Employee Engagement?

Overland Park, KS employee engagement expert and author Leigh Branham is the founder of Keeping The People, Inc. and he recently identified disappointing findings in a report released by The Economist, titled "Re-engaging with engagement: Views from the boardroom on employee engagement."
Those disappointing findings called out by Branham were:

84% of survey respondents say that "disengaged employees" are one of the three biggest threats facing their business. Yet, only 12% report that their companies "regularly and often" confront staff with "continually low engagement." C-suite executives themselves admit that employee engagement is discussed "occasionally", "rarely," or "never" at board level in 43% of companies.
More than one in five in the C-suite believe that employees are "much more engaged" than those in rival firms, compared with only 7% of respondents outside the C-suite.
47% of C-suite executives believe that they themselves "have determined the levels of employee engagement" in their companies, a view shared by only 16% of senior directors outside the C-suite. Only 13% of C-suite executives believe that line managers and middle managers are "chiefly responsible" for staff engagement.

The report is based on a survey of 331 C-suite executives (CEO, CFO, CIO, etc.) or senior directors from 19 industries in Europe and the Middle East.

"I was not surprised by the first two findings," says Branham. "My experience has led me to agree with the report's conclusion that "a sizeable discrepancy exists between what companies say about the perils of disengagement and how far they will actually go to confront the problem."

Branham is asking if the findings also apply to senior executives in the U.S. You can share your thoughts by contacting Branham on his website. He asks:

Who truly influences levels of employee engagement more in your company--senior leaders or direct managers?
What actions should HR leaders take to help C-suite leaders sort out which employee engagement initiatives to take?

The first book Branham wrote was, The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave. His most recent book is, Re-Engage: How America's Best Places To Work Inspire Extra Effort Through Extraordinary Engagements.

Comments

How To Transform The Influences Of Your Childhood Into Your Unique And Most Effective Leadership Style

The most significant predictor (up to 80 percent) of how someone shows up in their interpersonal interactions as a leader, and as a human, is their childhood, claims Pam Manfredo Curtis, PhD , author of the new book, The Origins Of A Leader: Transforming Family Patterns Into Leadership Power . Grounded in decades of psychological analysis, executive coaching, and behavioral data, Curtis elaborates that how leaders perform today is dramatically influenced by their childhood, with patterns formed early in life continuing to shape behavior, decision-making, and relationships at the highest levels. “When you know your why , you can change your how ,” says Curtis. “Put another way, when you understand the influential factors of your life, you can choose how they affect you. Curtis encourages you to explore specific childhood environments and discover how they shaped your strengths, communication patterns, and hidden limitations. Regarding the implications o...

James G. Ellis Shares The Leadership Lessons Behind A Lasting Legacy

In his new book, James G. Ellis shares the lessons he learned throughout his career as an entrepreneur, CEO, professor, mentor, and one of the nation’s most respected business school leaders. He is the former Dean of the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business. For aspiring leaders, educators, and entrepreneurs, A Journey of Insights: Lessons In Leadership And Legacy , offers a roadmap to success grounded in real-world experience, with a focus on humility, listening, and building strong, collaborative environments. The book is both a personal memoir and a strategic guide for those aiming to leave a lasting legacy in business. At the core of his message is the central theme that listening to voices around you throughout life is the key to success. “In essence, ears can speak louder than voices,” shares Ellis. The book also explores pivotal moments that helped define Ellis’ understanding of leadership, including encounters with Pres...

How To Rewire Your Mind To Build Your Adaptability Quotient

Alec Litowitz argues that the most valuable skill of the next decade isn't IQ or even EQ (Emotional Intelligence). It's AQ: your Adaptability Quotient, the ability to question assumptions, update beliefs, and respond effectively when reality changes. Litowitz is the author of the forthcoming book (releasing on September 15, 2026) The Adaptability Quotient: Rewiring Your Mind For Success In The Next Human Era . And he shares that “AQ is a learnable way of using your mind like a high-performance machine: to model risk, absorb feedback, make faster corrections, and create repeatable advantages in conditions where most people stall out—or drown.” In short, it’s all about how to move from “making the right decision” to “making decisions right.” “As artificial intelligence, media, and scientific advances reshape the cognitive landscape, adaptability becomes the essential discipline for reclaiming human agency,” adds Litowitz. “And a s AI resha...

How To Maximize Employee Involvement

Here are 10 tips for how to maximize employee involvement : Have active ways to listen to your employees. Check often with employees to see if the information you are sharing with them is what they need and what they want. Share information about customer satisfaction with employees. Discuss financial performance with your employees and be sure everyone understands the importance of profitability and how they can contribute to profitability. Allow ad hoc teams among employees to form to address organizational problems and work with those teams to tackle the identified issues. Encourage employees to make suggestions for improvement whether those ideas are large or small. Take an idea from one employee and share it with other employees and teams and let everyone make a contribution to build upon that idea. Train! For long-term employees, find ways to keep their jobs interesting through new assignments and challenges. Conduct meetings around specific issues and brai...

10 Best Quotes From The 5 Levels Of Leadership

Here are some of my favorites quotes from John C. Maxwell's book, The 5 Levels of Leadership -- a book I believe should become a must-read for any workplace/organizational leader: Good leadership isn't about advancing yourself. It's about advancing your team. Leaders become great, not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others. Leadership is action, not position. When people feel liked, cared for, included, valued, and trusted, they begin to work together with their leader and each other. If you have integrity with people, you develop trust. The more trust you develop, the stronger the relationship becomes. In times of difficulty, relationships are a shelter. In times of opportunity, they are a launching pad. Good leaders must embrace both care and candor. People buy into the leader, then the vision. Bringing out the best in a person is often a catalyst for bringing out the best in the team. Progress comes only fro...

Six Ways To Help Retain Your Employees

I had the pleasure of interviewing Leigh Branham over the past few years. He's the author of the popular book called, The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave . He told me that in research that he has done about the leaders of companies that have won " Best-Place-To-Work " competitions in 45 U.S. cities, that there are six things these effective leaders do that don't cost money . They do, however, cost time and effort. But, that is time and effort that can pay big dividends. Here are the six things you can do : Make the commitment to create a great place to work. Inspire employee confidence in decisions and clear business direction Work to build trust based on honesty and integrity Practice open, two-way communication, especially in times of uncertainty Look out for the organization before you look out for yourself Believe employees should be developed and retained; not burned out and discarded Thanks for these great leadership tips, ...

The Questions To Ask To Move Your Company Forward

Years ago in an issue of Inc. magazine, was a fascinating list of 35 questions from business owners, entrepreneurs and management thinkers. Each offered the one question they would ask to move a company forward . From the list, my favorites are : Are we relevant? Will we be relevant five years from now? Ten? What prevents me from making the changes I know will make me a more effective leader? Are we changing as fast as the world around us? Who, on the executive team or the board, has spoken to a customer recently? And, my most favorite is : How can we become the company that would put us out of business? What question do you ask to help move your company forward?

The 11 Most Important Questions To Ask Before Starting A Business

Are you a leader contemplating starting a new business? Or, has a budding entrepreneur turned to you because of your leadership skills to ask for your help? Here are 11 questions you or that entrepreneur should ask before starting a business. Is there a true need for my product/service? What is the competitive environment and how will my product/service be unique, different or better? Will my location (or accessibility online) be convenient and easy to get to for my customers? Do I have adequate funding to support my business, particularly during the ramp-up period that could be a year or more? Do I have the stamina to start a new business and work hard even if it means months of extended work hours and perhaps even seven days a week? Will my family and social life withstand my commitment to my new business? Will the name of my business be easy to spell, suitable for print on online, and memorable? Am I a risk taker ? Am I humble enough to ask for help , especi...

How Will You Get Involved?

"Philanthropy isn't just a pursuit for the wealthy. Philanthropy is about involvement . Pick your issue, work at it, and do your best to make things happen. Even if you're not wealthy, you have time, expertise, skills and other resources you may not even have realized that can be used to serve others." Thanks for this great advice from author Eli Broad.

Seven Indicators Of The Right Work For You

In Brian Tracy 's new book, Find Your Balance Point , he shares this helpful list of the seven indicators of the right work for you and the career where you will feel fully engaged and where you will be the happiest in serving other people: The right work for you is something that you really enjoy doing; something that you love to do. The right work for you is easy for you to learn and easy to do. In many cases, you learned it automatically, without thought or effort. You love learning more and more about the work if it is the right work for you. When you are engrossed in this work, the hours fly past. You forget what time it is, and later you are surprised to see how much time has passed. The right work for you gives you energy when you are doing it. You can spend hours at this work, often forgetting to eat. If it is the right work for you, you want to be excellent at it, and you are constantly striving to learn and improve in that area. If it is the right work for y...

Eric Jacobson On Management And Leadership

Search This Blog