When HR executives ask me how they can get “buy in” from their C-Suite brethren for new initiatives related to employee engagement I tell them to speak one truth to power “profitability”. I have not met a senior executive yet whose head did not turn when promised greater profitability, and that is exactly what HR professionals should be promising they can deliver with properly-built employee engagement programs. There is a positive correlation between employee engagement levels and corporate profits and they can prove it.

This reality can be seen in the data that comes from the recently released Incentive Research Foundation (IRF) 2017 Trends Study (http://theirf.org/research/irf-2017-trends-study/1940/#1). This study provides insight into the shift in thinking over the past 20 years about how to induce engagement and to the tactics and best practices that lead to properly built programs. After catching the attention of the decision maker with a claim of increased profits, drop the IRF study, and the most recent results of Gallup’s Q12 Employee Engagement Study, http://www.gallup.com/services/190118/engaged-workplace.aspx?gclid=COnbgurqg9ICFYKKswod4xYH2Q on their desk and you’ll be off to a great start.