Employee engagement on the rise, but still room for improvement

The workforce is growing more engaged, which may be as much a byproduct of the improving economy as it is from companies' internal relationship-building initiatives. According to a recent survey from HR consultancy ETS, approximately 87 percent of workers say they are engaged, while 30 percent say they are “highly engaged.”

ETS' survey determined engagement levels by asking employees whether they were willing to go the “extra mile” for the company at which they worked, if they would recommend their company as a great place to work and if they planned to work there for another year.

An important factor in maintaining engagement levels was worker appreciation. More than half (57 percent) of engaged employees said they felt their work was valued by their companies.

A Kaizen culture takes all the feedback from employees – who are the most familiar with the tasks associated with their jobs – and implements it into operations, which is one of the many reasons that going Lean can be so useful for driving higher engagement levels throughout a company.