A good article about keeping employees engaged hit my inbox this morning. It was provided by Accenture and cites research showing (not surprisingly) that engaged workers tend to perform much better than their disengaged counterparts. The article makes the point that workers in nonprofits tend to stay with their organizations even if they are not well engaged with the nonprofit's leadership because they ARE engaged with the organization's stated mission.

So how, one might ask, do people who are engaged with the mission become disengaged from the entities' leadership? The article lists elements that are important in increasing engagement and the central theme is the creation of a culture of trust and respect. So if an organization's leaders belittle employees, treat them like things rather then human beings, or their actions do not routinely appear consistent with what is ostensibly the company's reason for existence, a chasm will form. The article is good reading and can be found here: http://www.accenture.com/us-en/Pages/insight-increasing-employee-engagement-nonprofit-sector-summary.aspx?c=glb_acnemalert_10000216&n=emc_0612

ejt
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