Scott and I have just been going through some slides on the topic.

I talked to HR Directors at a CIPR conference on the subject on Wednesday. 

It wasn't a very good performance.  I had so much to say that I just talked without breathing for 50 minutes and sat down.  After which they looked more tired than I did.

But there are two things about employee engagement that I think are quite important:

1) It never stops

• You have to approach it through all channels (especially leadership) constantly. 
• It's much easier to erode than it is to build.
• It takes a long, long time to do... and then you still have to keep at it.

2) It's usually done wrong

• Many people think employee engagement is about balloons and bar-b-ques.
• What people really want is to be involved in the business -- to know how their work helps the company succeed.
• People want to do their job as well as they can and see how that makes the whole company succeed.

If you are running a "Best Total Cost" business (for Discipline of Market Leaders fans) then maybe you can get away with balloons and CEO breakfasts.  But in knowledge businesses, you should need to get people involved.

Is that too simple?

/df