Interesting article about the relationship between Employee Engagement and employees home life

[Alan Smith]

I believe most people would have guessed this but it is interesting to read about none the less.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090824115911.htm

http://passionwerx.com

[Jennifer Schulte]

That is interesting, thank you for sharing it - I heard at a conference recently (sorry I can't remember who said it / from where!) that feeling disengaged at work is 9 times more impactful in a bad way on your home / family life vs. if you are happy at home - transferring that back into your work life. If anyone can validate that quote please let me know!

[David Zinger]

Jennifer, I will put this forum into today's weekly email and see if we can find out. I would love to know the source of this too.

[David Zinger]

Alan,

Thanks for the link. I agree, most of us would have believed this but it is compelling to let employees know the benefit of their own engagement in work goes also into their family. Not a limited pool of engagement that gets depleted rather engagement in one area can enhance another area. I also appreciated the look at daily engagement variability.

The study results suggested that engagement is significantly related to daily mood, and mood also is positively correlated with work-family facilitation. The researchers found that both work engagement and work-to-family facilitation vary considerably from day-to-day.

"Just because an employee might not be invigorated or dedicated to his or her work on a Monday doesn't mean he or she won't be engaged on Tuesday or vice versa," Culbertson said. "Additionally, one's work can facilitate things at home to a different extent depending on the day and what has happened on that particular day."

The researchers also found that daily work engagement had a positive effect on family life after controlling for workload -- heavy or light work hours were not a factor.

[Ben Simonton]

Thanks, Alan, for the link. It only serves to confirm what we all know at heart.

And I agree with David that there is value in letting employees know. If they are employed in a place that denies them engagement, this will have a very negative effect on their private life and families. They need to find themselves a better place to work or take extraordinary methods to protect themselves from the damage. I actually believe that it is much easier to protect oneself from the damage than to find a company that does allow one to be engaged. There are simple ways to accomplish this feat.

The real impact of this info is that what is truly best for a company is also best for its employees. I wish that fact could penetrate the consciousness of managers.

Best regards, Ben

[Kim Fabian]

Interesting that hours worked did not play a factor. I also appreciated how the authors differentiated between engagement and workaholics. A good read--thanks!

[Jim Olson]

Great article, Alan. Hey, I love your website. Looks like Passionwerx is the Holy Grail for measuring and raising employee engagement. Let's talk...

[Deri Latimer]

I also saw this article in Science Daily. You are right - we all might have guessed it - but data speaks volumes. This certainly helps answer the question on many employee's minds ... ''what's in it for me to engage at work'?'