According to a 2005 Harris Interactive Survey only 20% of respondents feel very passionate about their jobs, while 33% believe they have reached a dead end in their career and 21% are eager to change careers.

Based on research, there are a number of benefits to be gained from increasing employee engagement. The correlation between passionate, engaged employees, happy customers and profitability is strong.
Passionate, engaged employees have been shown to have a strong, positive effect on customer engagement. The research has shown that engaged employees grow in their ability to positively affect customers.
Overall, most companies have three kinds of employees :

  1. Passionate and engaged – Employees work with passion and feel a profound connection to their company. They drive innovation and move the company forward and creates at least $32,000 per year in additional revenue for the company.
  2. Not engaged – Employees are essentially “checked out.” They are primarily at work for the pay cheque and they only do what they have to in order to get by.
  3. Actively disengaged – Employees who aren’t just unhappy at work; they are actively acting out their unhappiness. Every day these workers undermine what they’re engaged workers accomplish. Disengaged employees cost their companies about $16,000 per year.

In average companies, the ratio of engaged to actively disengaged employees is 1.5:1. In world-class companies, the ratio is 8:1. Our intent is to help our clients get to at least the 8:1 level.

What Can be Done?

Using an innovative model called “The Passion Test for Business” can help management to:

  1. Help you clarify the company’s unique value proposition that your clients pay you for.
  2. Help senior management identify the things that matter most for the company to deliver that value. We call these the company’s passions. This is about what you do to deliver your unique value to clients and customers.
  3. Help employees identify their own top five work-related passions. These are things that matter most to them in their life at work. We also help employees identify their core passions, which means “why” they consider their top five work passions to be so important to them.

The idea is that when you match employees’ passions with job roles that reflect the company’s need to deliver it’s unique value to it’s clients, you create the opportunity for employees to be fully engaged in delivering that value.

Workplace Application

For successful talent management and succession planning, including meaning and passion in the formula for long-term success is the basis for identifying and culturing tomorrow’s leaders. Passionate employees are more engaged. If employers can identify the core passions of their people then jobs and career paths can be planned that align the individual’s core passions with the needs of the organization.

Are you looking for ways to improve your organization’s performance? Leading edge companies now realize that employee engagement can be a huge competitive advantage. Contact Geoff Affleck to see if your business can benefit from this innovative approach.