More and more companies these days have begun to pay attention to the topic of employee engagement as a way to help drive their future growth and workplace culture. Unlike the days of old, when workers - especially those on the frontline - were expected to do little more than punch a clock and perform rote tasks, today’s leading organizations have come to appreciate how valuable it can be for manufacturing workplace culture in particular when employees throughout every level of the company bring their passion and creativity with them to work every day.

“The numbers in a business are just stories about people.” - Jack Stack, CEO of SRC Holdings and author of The Great Game of Business What are your company’s numbers, and how do you use them to assign accountabilities to departments and people?

If your company is currently employee owned, or you are considering it; you're probably planning to attend the 2014 Employee Ownership Conference held April 8-10, 2014 in Atlanta, Georgia which is presented by the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO).

During our journey to share the coolest employee engagement infographics around, we've shared research detailing the impact of engaged (and disengaged) employees along with the best-practices for engage employees at all levels of the company. Incentive programs, workplace perks and unique rewards are often seen as best-practice for employers. Check out the infographic below to learn if these workplace incentives are really what keeps the talent around.

Part three of our five-part series of Employee Engagement Infographics detailed the cost of disengaged employees; if learning that $370 billion is lost annually due to disengaged employees wasn't enough to spur your interest, part four of the series elaborates on "The Importance of Employee Engagement." Learn how other companies are motivating their staff…and how effective that motivation truly is.

In our first two installments of our five-part Employee Engagement Infographic series, we brought you infographics detailing the importance of happiness in the workplace. Part one taught you what makes employees happy, while part two shared research revealing that happy workers are more productive. This week's infographic, "Work Engaged, Work Inspired," explains how engaged workers benefit your business, the jaw-dropping cost of disengaged workers as well as some super-simple tips for re-engaging employees who need a little inspiration.

In our last post, we showed you an infographic that showcased recent research on "What Makes Employees Happy." So what's so great about happy employees? Part two for our series, "The Happy Secret to Better Work," shows the hidden benefits of happy workers for both the employer and the employee.

What is the most cost-effective incentive that is a proven driving force behind employee engagement? The answer is simple: recognition. Engaging employees is becoming increasingly more important to employers because engaged employees tend to be better workers and stay with a company longer. We've collected some great infographics that sum up the current research on employee engagement so you could have them all at your fingertips. Because each infographic is packed with useful information, we've made divided them up into a five-part series to make them a bit more digestible. Below, you'll find part one-of-five; we hope you find the information in the series both helpful and enlightening.

When I think about all of the times I’ve been hired for various jobs over the course of my life, I have the benefit of 20-20 hindsight to see the enormous impact that training had on my success (or failure) in each job. Although I’ve now worked for Zingerman’s almost seven years, I still remember going through the hiring and orientation process, most particularly as a seasonal, temporary employee at Zingerman’s Mail Order. In fact, my experience at Mail Order is a big part of the reason that I wanted to stick around after that fast-paced, fun, and all-too-brief holiday season!

Playing The Great Game of Business can be a real rush, especially in the beginning. It’s a new concept for most people, so there’s an initial excitement when everyone is first figuring out how this all works. But the romance can fade, and if it does, The Game can become just another routine office chore. How can you tell if the romance is fading? There are four obvious danger signs. Individually, they can just be one or two people being grumpy, but collectively, they can signal that people are starting to take The Game for granted. So here’s what you need to be wary of: