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.