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Gallup has a novel concept, based on metadata research. Employees who are more engaged (which is not entirely well defined) at the workplace help companies create higher profits.

In a new study, Gallup researchers found:

Companies everywhere have opportunities for greater productivity — and are leaving money on the table. Gallup’s latest meta-analysis shows that business units in the top quartile of employee engagement are 21% more profitable, are 17% more productive, have 10% better customer ratings, experience 41% less absenteeism and suffer 70% fewer safety incidents compared with business units in the bottom quartile.

The research house says the essential foundation of employee engagement is the ability of management to set clear expectations. Without expectations, it is hard to image employees could be productive at all.

One key to communicating expectations: “Articulated clearly.” It would be hard for the process to work otherwise.

The other best practice for passing along expectations:

Developed collaboratively. Companies need to get workers’ input, collaborating with them to agree on role expectations. With this approach, workers will be more likely to own their expectations and succeed.

Also:

Aimed at excellence. Workers aren’t inspired by minimum job standards such as showing up on time or submitting time sheets using the proper process. Instead, managers can bring out the very best in each worker by talking about what top performers do differently and then setting expectations based on those best-in-class behaviors.

In many ways, like professional football.