Engaging the "pole vaulters" on your staff

You may know the five principles for increasing employee engagement: Keep people informed, listen, set clear objectives, match the person with the job, and create meaningful work. Though these tactics provide a good foundation, firms should also tailor engagement programs to reach different types of workers. After studying eight companies with a total of 180,000 employees, we and our coresearchers Kerstin Alfes, Chris Rees, and Mark Gatenby classified workers into four groups and identified effective ways firms have customized programs. Our findings suggest that such efforts lead to more-engaged employees, who in turn perform better, are more loyal, take less sick leave, are less likely to quit, and enjoy better health and personal well-being. See if you recognize your direct reports in the types from our study.