In 2008, ASTD partnered with Dale Carnegie Training and the Institute for Corporate Productivity to survey 776 respondents and extensively review the business literature on learning's role in employee engagement.

According to the study report, worker engagement is among the most important employee issues of the day. The current survey asked respondents to rate the extent to which engagement is important in their organizations. \[more\]More than four-fifths of respondents (82%) noted that engagement is important to either a high or very high extent. In contrast, only 3.5% of respondents suggested engagement is important not at all or to small extent. Experts agree that engaged workers contribute to their employers in a variety of ways, all of which support organizational effectiveness and long-term success. The survey asked about many of the reasons typically given for seeking a more engaged workforce. The reason that came out ahead of all others was the response of enhance customer service and help drive customer satisfaction, as shown in the graph below. About 83% said they considered this a reason to a high or very high degree. That reason was followed by the desire to improve organizational productivity (81%) and improve companies' bottom lines (75%).

Source: Learning's Role in Employee Engagement (ASTD/Dale Carnegie Training/i4cp)

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