Employee engagement is not the only thing that matters in business, but it matters a lot. Engaged employees contribute more ideas, care more about reducing waste, and provide better customer service. They also stay with their organizations longer and work more effectively in teams. To get you inspired about engaging your employees, I’ve pulled together a few quotes from some of my favorite thought leaders. Enjoy!

"When people are financially invested, they want a return. When people are emotionally invested, they want to contribute." - Simon Sinek

“There are only three measurements that tell you nearly everything you need to know about your organization’s overall performance: employee engagement, customer satisfaction, and cash flow.” - Jack Welch

"Dispirited, unmotivated, unappreciated workers cannot compete in a highly competitive world." - Francis Hesselbein

“Paychecks can’t buy passion.”  - Brad Federman

"Research indicates that workers have three prime needs: Interesting work, recognition for doing a good job, and being let in on things that are going on in the company." - Zig Ziglar

"The way your employees feel is the way your customers will feel. And if your employees don't feel valued, neither will your customers." - Sybil F. Stershic

"Highly engaged employees make the customer experience. Disengaged employees break it." - Timothy R. Clark

"Culture is about performance, and making people feel good about how they contribute to the whole." - Tracy Streckenbach

"The simple act of paying positive attention to people has a great deal to do with productivity."  - Tom Peters

“Accept the fact that we have to treat almost anybody as a volunteer.” - Peter Drucker

“Some companies don’t have an engagement problem, they have a hiring problem.” - Bob Kelleher

“Create caring and robust connections between every employee and their work, customers, leaders, managers, and the organization to achieve results that matter to everyone in this sentence.”  - David Zinger

“Employees who believe that management is concerned about them as a whole person – not just an employee – are more productive, more satisfied, more fulfilled. Satisfied employees mean satisfied customers, which leads to profitability.” - Anne Mulcahy

“Connect the dots between individual roles and the goals of the organization. When people see that connection, they get a lot of energy out of work. They feel the importance, dignity, and meaning in their job.” - Ken Blanchard

“You manage things; you lead people.” - Rear Admiral Grace Hopper

“You’ll attract the employees you need if you can explain why your mission is compelling: not why it’s important in general, but why you’re doing something important that no one else is going to get done.” - Peter Thiel

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.” -  Aristotle

“A group of people get together and exist as an institution we call a company so they are able to accomplish something collectively that they could not accomplish separately – they make a contribution to society, a phrase which sounds trite but is fundamental.” -  David Packard

“People want to know they matter and they want to be treated as people. That’s the new talent contract.” -  Pamela Stroko

“TURNED ON people figure out how to beat the competition, TURNED OFF people only complain about being beaten by the competition.”  - Ben Simonton

We hope these nuggets of wisdom have you inspired and energized. Did we miss one of your favorites? If so, let us know.

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