Creating An Engaged Workforce

Accenture (the large management consulting firm), revealed in a recent survey of business executives, that 72 percent of these leaders consider employee engagement to be critically important to the competitive success of their companies.

Accenture's research found that workforce engagement can be measured using the following characteristics:

• Satisfaction
• Understanding
• Contribution
• Alignment
• Retention

Accenture also found the following 10 approaches to be effective for improving employee engagement:

1. Rewards and Recognition
2. Human Capital Infrastructure
3. Learning Management
4. Knowledge Management
5. Performance Appraisal
6. Workplace Design
7. Employee Relations
8. Career Development
9. Human capital strategy
10. Recruiting

BOTTOMLINE: Small businesses can create an engaged workforce -- in fact, small businesses have a distinct advantage over much larger businesses to do so. Many of these approaches for e effective for improving employee engagement are part of the Six Disciplines Methodology.