Satisfaction and Employee Engagement

What's the difference between a satisfied and an engaged employee? Only everything, argues Globoforce, a Westborough, Mass., work force solutions company in this eWeek article.

Satisfaction is a measurement of the past; engagement is more future-looking.

Research to support this claim?

• A recent study by the Corporate Leadership Council, a human resources research company, found that increased engagement could be the "tipping point" in retaining employees; in fact, increased engagement was found to lead to a 57 percent improvement in discretionary effort.
• Furthermore, increased discretionary effort improved performance by 20 percent and reduced attrition by 87 percent.
• Highly engaged organizations grew profits three times faster than their competitors.

BOTTOMLINE: "Beyond a lack of recognition, unclear demands had a significant impact on the engagement of employees. It's up to the manager to recover this discretionary work enthusiasm."