Employee Engagement & Mental Health: by Michael Koscec - Entec Corporation - Friday, December 05 2008
In the last few years a great deal has been written about employee engagement. Several definitions of employee engagement have been suggested. All of the definitions share similar themes. They refer to employees being committed to their work, being passionate about their work, being emotional connected to their organization and to their coworkers. After the publication of the book, First Break All the Rules, the Gallup organization became well known for the research in this area. Buckingham and Coffman, who coauthored the book, provided numerous illustrations of the connection between, good people, good managers and successful companies.
In the late nineties Entec Corporation was examining a flood of statistics that showed the rapid increase in the cost of absenteeism as it related to mental disabilities. For example, in 1998, in a telecommunications company with 34,000 employees, the cost of absenteeism due to mental disabilities had reached 35% of the total cost of absences. We also examined drug use statistics at various companies and noted a significant increase of drugs usage for various types of emotional disabilities. At one of our client organizations, with 3,500 employees, between 1997-2001, there was a five fold increase in the use of drugs such as Welbutrin, Prozac and other drugs that are typically used for treating depression, anxiety disorder and burnout. In their May 1999 report, The Global Business and Economic Roundtable on Addiction and Mental Health estimated that the cost of depression to business in the US was about $60 billion per year.
In the last few years a great deal has been written about employee engagement. Several definitions of employee engagement have been suggested. All of the definitions share similar themes. They refer to employees being committed to their work, being passionate about their work, being emotional connected to their organization and to their coworkers. After the publication of the book, First Break All the Rules, the Gallup organization became well known for the research in this area. Buckingham and Coffman, who coauthored the book, provided numerous illustrations of the connection between, good people, good managers and successful companies.