Over the years, we have observed research consistently evidence the need for employers to pursue employee engagement, bolstering its case more and more as data revealed the superior earnings of organizations that succeeded in this area. If asked about employee engagement, 9 out of 10 of today’s business leaders will say that it is a serious priority for them. Yet, the numbers show that the average level of employee engagement in recent years hasn’t changed much.

So what’s getting in the way of progress? For starters, the entire employee experience plays a role in engagement, as opposed to just the individual drivers, as earlier thought. This widens the breadth of the factors in focus, and can be overwhelming for companies trying to decide how to allocate their resources toward engagement efforts.

Secondly, employee engagement is no longer a new concept in the world of HR and human capital management, meaning that nearly every professional approaches it with their own set of experiences and notions. These experiences shape their beliefs about engagement, which in turn drive their actions, whether consciously or not. Many have seen the power of engaged employees; however, others who have not met with success may have become disillusioned.

Thirdly, since most leaders are also employees, their engagement shifts according to their level of seniority in the organization. This suggests that some organizations believe they needn’t make efforts to engage their leaders, in other words that they “pay leaders to be engaged”. This forms cracks in the foundation of even a very healthy work culture, trickling-down in the form of disengagement among those who report to them.

Finally, believe it or not, several of today’s organizations are simply paying lip service to the idea that engaging their employees is a prerogative. At this point, honest analysis, open dialogue and focused action are going to be key to identifying how companies can steer the course of their human capital engagement.

Stay tuned for our latest white paper on employee engagement, which aims to uncover how making engagement a daily habit for leaders impacts engagement, how some leaders succeed at making it a priority, and much more.

Employee Engagement: It’s Time to Go ‘All-In’ officially launches on August 10th 2018, at the 3rd annual roundtable series of the Dale Carnegie Expert Forum, in Bangalore.