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Employee engagement: the buzzword is everywhere, but can anyone really agree on what it means? How do you measure it? And how can you build an effective strategy that works in your unique company culture?

Employee engagement is tricky to define because it represents different things to different people. Some companies describe engagement as an emotional commitment to the company that includes both loyalty and dedication to achieving goals. Others define engagement in terms of productivity.

The truth is that both viewpoints are right. Engagement expert and Chief Scientific officer at Engage2Excel Jack Wiley, Ph.D. defines it this way: “Employee engagement is the extent to which employees are motivated to contribute to organizational success and are willing to apply discretionary effort to accomplishing tasks important to the achievement of organizational goals.”

Now for an even more important question. If you couldn't provide answers on the spot, should you or your HR department be able to?

Today’s CEOs have data on nearly every facet of their business. Yet, many come up short when they seek objective, data-driven insights on their company’s most valuable assets–its people. If HR can’t provide these insights, who should?

For the past decade, many in the HR industry have been calling for radical changes to the performance management process and an end to the annual performance review. While many companies have moved to more frequent programs for individual goal setting and performance feedback, reports of the death of the annual performance review (to steal a quip from Twain) “have been greatly exaggerated.”

People want to know where they stand.
When Facebook reevaluated its performance management systems several years ago, according to a November 2016 article in Harvard Business Review, they conducted focused groups and a follow-up survey with 300 people that revealed 87% wanted to keep a more formal process.

In the complex anatomy of your organization, your workforce is the heartbeat. A strong, healthy heart pumps blood throughout the body, usually at a steady rate, but can work much faster when necessary. Similarly, a robust workforce propels productivity throughout the organization, supplying oxygen in the form of discretionary effort and removing toxins such as complacency. Your workforce can exceed expectations when it is in good health and receiving the attention and motivation it needs to flourish.