A survey has found that four out of 10 employers has no formal approach to engaging and motivating staff. Engagement can be difficult for businesses to understand and therefore address but there is clear evidence for its link to business performance. I would therefore encourage this 40% of businesses to invest in understanding and addressing engagement in their workforce.

Some argue that engagement has become a buzzword. Maybe it has lost meaning and employers are unclear what it means or how to address it. The point that is often missed, and one which is really important, is that engagement is unique to an organisation. What an engaged employee looks like in one company will often differ greatly to another company.

David MacLeod and Nita Clarke, writing in the ‘Engaging for Success’ report, hit the nail on the head by saying, “there is no silver bullet that will deliver high levels of employee engagement overnight and certainly there is no one size fits all solution”.

Where companies should focus in the first instance is finding out what drives engagement for their employees. What makes them come to work every day – what motivates them to achieve good results – what drives them to go the extra mile?

By having a better understanding of what motivates your employees and using employee surveys to get their feedback, companies can tailor strategy accordingly. It is no coincidence that companies with a high level of engagement are likely to have stronger commercial performance too.