According to Gallup, approximately 32 percent of U.S. employees and 17 percent of UK employees are fully engaged in their jobs. Worldwide, the average is even lower, with only 13 percent feeling connected to their work. What’s even more troubling is that these figures haven’t really fluctuated much during the past 15 years. That stability could indicate that efforts to engage employees simply don’t work, or that there is too much “off-the-shelf” thinking and many employee engagement efforts are little more than lip service. The latter might be closer to the truth; there are several examples of companies that pay close attention to the needs of their workers, and see impressive results through these engagement efforts. One such company, Pets At Home, a pet and pet supplies retailer, is an excellent example. Before focusing on engagement, the company suffered from a 70 percent turnover rate annually, and it was spending hundreds of thousands of dollars per year on recruiting new managers. However, once the company became serious about engagement, it was able to turn around those bad practices. By focusing on people first, both in recruitment and in recognition, it was able to lower costs and reduce turnover. However, this was not an easy process. It took nearly eight years of staying the course to accomplish the engagement goals of the company.