Reporting on Employee Engagement

[Jeffrey Cherry]

Hello all:
I've posted on this before but wanted to take a little different angle on this. We are a group of ex-management consultants who are now starting an investment company. Our investment thesis is based on the foundational premise that well run companies focus primarily on the health of stakeholders and stakeholder relationships, and that the health of these relationships (with employees, customers, suppliers, communities, NGOs, environmental organizations and shareholders) is the primary leading indicator of long-term financial success. In our model however not all stakeholders are created equal. Employees and customers are the first among equals in this constellation. The problem with executing on this model is that there is precious little information out there, required to be reported, about the health of these relationships. We truly believe that this information is more indicative of future performance than anything that is required to be reported at present. One of the amazing things we have found is the reluctance of organizations to share, specifically, employee engagement metrics with us or with the public at large. As ex-consultants and being steeped in the EE arena, we find this completely baffling. We know that organizations with high levels of employee engagement outperform their peers, they tend to attract the best and the brightest and more and more, wall street is looking for these companies to bring them capital. We're simply looking to know if an organization is measuring EE, what tool they may be using and what score they've achieved. In no instance have we suggested that specific employee or employment related metrics be revealed but yet we are constantly told, at least by the consulting organizations that provide these services to companies, that the companies will not let these scores public. So, any ideas about why this is? More importantly We are still looking for a source that can give us employee engagement reads on a large number of publicly traded companies. So, any ideas?

Thanks