Like all hot business topics, there are more than a handful of books on the market providing guidance, insight, and suggestions about how to improve Employee Engagement in your business. I have found the following to be a great place to start. These books provide a balanced perspective from different viewpoints and using different methods and techniques to share those points of view. If you have read any of them, or have other recommendations, please share your thoughts in the comments below.
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Engaging the Hearts and Minds of all Your Employees: Lee J Colan, Ph. D.
The author suggests that by meeting six basic needs of employees: Achievement, Intimacy, Mastery, Purpose, Autonomy and Inspiration employers will engage their people, ignite passionate performance and liberate the customer value chain. OF particular relevance is the principle that p[people buy from people – not from companies providing ample support for having fully engaged front line staff to more effectively engage customers and drive revenue improvement.
Employee Engagement 2.0: Kevin Kruse
Based on years of practical experience creating organisations voted by employees as a ‘Best Place to Work’ Kruse provides a practical, step-by-step guide covering the essentials of how to go about lifting employee engagement in your business. He demonstrates the links between engagement and improved business performance, as well as asking searching questions that will help you identify where you are at and how to move forward.
Employee Engagement: Brad Federman
A technically rigorous book, this volume, presents a comprehensive framework and methodologies to assist business executives link corporate strategy to HR initiatives and people strategies in general. It identifies what drives engagement and provides an approach to measuring engagement in your business and how to assess the impact of your initiatives to improve engagement in your organisation.
The Truth About Employee Engagement: Patrick Lencioni
Using a modern management fable combined with case studies, Lencioni goes to the heart of why people are dissatisfied at work; what it is that makes work miserable for so many people in the modern era. In his tale of employment redemption he asks simple yet challenging questions and then provides a model for making any job rewarding and fulfilling. Lencioni is the master of the management fable and this is one of his best.
The Employee Engagement Mindset: Timothy R Clark
This insightful book looks at the ‘other side’ of the Employee Engagement coin. Most books on this topic consider what the organisation needs to do to engage their employees. In this book, Clark focuses on what the Employee can do to be engaged at work. The premise of the book is a refreshing change in that it emphasises that engagement is not a one way street – all players in the game have a part to play.
And a bonus – because 5 just wasn’t quite enough and I couldn’t leave this one off the list!
Delivering Happiness: Tony Hsieh
This book is not a ‘how to’ nor is it steeped in academic research or consulting insights. It is a fascinating insight into how one company took the concept of employee engagement to a level that resulted in a thriving business known for its unique take on customer service and corporate culture. Whilst I do not recommend doing exactly what the crowd at Zappos put into place – there are many interventions you could ‘try on’ for your business.
