3 employee-engagement myths—busted

I recently read another post about why people hate their jobs and what employers can do about it.

The post, published in USA Today and titled “The Motley Fool: Why you hate your job” is just another mainstream media attention grab. It really contains very little from a fresh or new perspective.

To their credit, they do cite the well-referenced Gallup survey that 52 percent of workers are not engaged in their work and that another 18 percent describe themselves as “actively disengaged.” The author goes on to drive home the point that American productivity is victim of this epidemic. “The most strategic act that any organization can take is to better engage and inspire team members.” That’s the best advice in the post.

Their post contained three suggestions for how the leaders of an organization can “fix” this problem of employee engagement. In response, I’d like to bust three myths about engagement:

Myth No. 1: Employee engagement can be fixed by external stimuli.