By Sean Kelly, SnackNation cofounder and CEO
There’s an epidemic in the American workplace. It’s undermining your company’s ability to reach its full potential, and zapping individual employees of their energy and purpose.
 |
The culprit? A lack of employee engagement.
According to research firm Gallup, the vast majority—nearly 70%— of U.S. employees are not engaged in their current roles. Within that group, 17.5% characterize themselves as actively disengaged, which means that they are actively working to undermine the success of their own companies.
All this apathy has wide ranging economic consequences. According to the 2013 State of the American Workplace report, Gallup estimates that active disengagement costs American companies $450 to $550 billion in lost productivity. They also recently demonstrated that disengaged companies consistently underperform in a number of categories, including profits, productivity, and retention.
But the numbers only tell half the story.
Engaged employees are happier and more fulfilled. They look forward to going to work, and are eager to take on challenges and pursue personal and professional growth. And since most of us spend the majority of our waking hours at work, employee engagement elevates our overall quality of life.
Admittedly, employee engagement is a complex subject. After all, engagement is all about people, and people are complicated. We all carry a matrix of emotional, cultural, and psychological factors that affect our behavior. So where to start?
One of the easiest, most effective places to start is with office nutrition. Here’s why.