Employee Engagement For Dummies Paperback – December 24, 2013

I was skeptical of this book, even though Bob's previous books were well written and worthwhile. I didn't feel like a dummy, and I didn't particularly want to read a 350-page textbook on this topic.However, I was very pleased to discover this is a must-read handbook on all aspects of increasing employee engagement, in an easy-to-read format with plenty of humor, stories, checklists, and so forth to keep me turning the pages.Bob Kelleher's 30 years in the trenches, plus the Dummies team's talent for organizing and communicating valuable content, is a winning combination. Bob is thorough and very generous with what he knows. For example, here is just some of the "meat" the book includes:– engagement survey questions– communication protocol, planning templates, and best practices for communicating before, during, and between surveys– steps for establishing local and company–wide engagement committees– steps for creating, communicating, and reporting on action plans– interview questions to help select employees who are more likely to be fully engaged– what to ask in exit interviews and "stay" interviews to help you learn how to improve future engagement– best practices for using the onboarding process to engage employees right from the start– steps to identify, crystallize, and communicate, and reinforce the company's purpose, values, and vision– tips for incorporating corporate social responsibility (CSR) to drive engagement– best practices for training managers to drive engagement– tips and key messaging to help get all senior leaders on board, so that employee engagement becomes a corporate initiative rather than just an HR "program of the day"– best practices for recognition– 12 leadership-based engagement drivers– steps for setting performance expectations and conducting performance appraisals– alternatives for performance assessment and feedbackOn a side note, I read this book on my Kindle, and all of the sidebars and callout boxes were formatted perfectly. Kindle users know that many graphical books don't translate well to Kindle, but the publishers of Dummies clearly have this down to a science.

Very useful

In this book Bob Kelleher provides a very thoughtful step-by-step approach to create a culture of engagement in your company. However it also provides the framework for sound leadership practices. Follow the lessons outlined in the book and you will all the basic building blocks of sound management well delivered.The lessons contained in this book make sense. It gives many specific examples of behaviors that managers and managers-to-be should exhibit. Chapter 5 on communication is worth the price of the book alone. I have never heard a complaint from an employee that the company/ management/ HR communicated too much! However I have listen to many employees complaining about he "mushroom syndrome" (kept in the dark and fed waste). Everyone wants to feel informed and included. That is part of our nature. Meet this need and your people will respond and get involved.Bob's books and programs are always very strong on practical approaches to organizational issues. This book could easily be used in a course on good management practices. I found it helpful for practicing managers and insightful for those who want to become managers. Do what the book outlines and you ill be noticed (in a good way) by your organization.

This is a good introduction if you know nothing about employee engagement, and need to get up to speed quickly. I agree with some of the other comments that the book can be a little wide ranging at times, but this isn't necessarily a bad thing. It gives exposure to all aspects of engagement, beyond the most obvious ones. You can always skip the parts you don't need right away. I plan on keeping this book as a quick reference manual due to its structured nature (which also makes it a bit harder to read back-to-back).I took out a star because I feel the author has some outdated and preconceived views on some things and does not back them up with hard evidence (such as millenials have been brought up by boomers to be rewarded whether on the winning or losing team; they need positive reinforcement 8 times a day, etc. The kind of opinion-based laments you'd expect to hear at the old folks home). Also I disagree with the notion that 10/20% of employees really matter (page 205). This concept of picking who your star employees are, and then give this exclusive group access to the best your organization can offer, is what is turning people off and generating an engagement gap.Overall a good book, just not the only book you should read on this topic for sure.

I finally opened my new copy of this book on a flight home from FLA the other night and became instantly hooked. I even went to the town library on Saturday and Sunday afternoon to sneak in some more time to devour the content of "Employee Engagement for Dummies". It is nice to see that much of what I have practiced and espoused as an HR professional over the years is captured here so it validates while offering hard data survey results to back it up. This is a must-read for any business professional looking to elevate employee performance...and who isn't?! A blueprint for organizational success. This book is loaded with countless tips and implementation strategies Count me in as a fan!

You can tell that Bob didn't just fall off of the engagement turnip truck; he lives and breaths this stuff!While not meant as a "read through" book, it flows great and is easy to digest, even though it is highly detailed, Bob does a great job of making this subject compelling and leaves the reader with a lot of great ideas that can be implemented themselves or with the help of a consultant.This was deep, but I never felt that it was overwhelming or over my head. Great read and truly the complete story of employee engagement in today's workplace. You may be a Dummy now, but you sure won't be when you're done reading this book!