The Employee Engagement Handbook
The Employee Engagement Handbook
A Leader's Guide to People, Purpose, and Performance
Employee engagement is a business-performance issue, not an HR initiative.
Organizations execute strategy through people. The Employee Engagement Handbook gives leaders a framework for examining whether the conditions people experience every day are helping, or constraining, the organization's ability to execute.
Foreword by Oliver Brecht, Vice President and General Manager of Enterprise Solutions, Workplace Options.
nearly 250,000 lived experiences across 18 countries in psychosocial risk research
Source: Workplace Options Center for Organizational Effectiveness, Psychosocial Risk by Geography
employees across 90 countries in Gallup's engagement meta-analysis
Source: Gallup Q12 Meta-Analysis, 11th Edition
business and work-unit outcomes related to employee engagement
Source: Gallup Q12 Meta-Analysis, 11th Edition
Why This Book Is Different
What Leaders Get From the Handbook
A Proprietary Framework
Built around the Employee Engagement Growth Model, which connects six leadership strategies, four individual employee needs, and four team outcomes in one operating framework.
Global Research Base
Draws on research from Gallup, Harvard Business Review, Deloitte, and Workplace Options.
Immediately Actionable
Every chapter includes research, real-world case studies, leadership tactics you can apply the same week, and reflection questions to help you put it into practice.
What Is Inside
Foreword
By Oliver Brecht, Vice President and General Manager of Enterprise Solutions, Workplace Options. His foreword situates the EEGM within the global employee wellbeing context that WPO tracks at scale, grounding the framework in data most leadership books can only cite from the outside.
“Long-term success is impossible without engaged employees. Motivated workers and their discretionary efforts are the secret to consistent performance, above-average profits, and companies that thrive during difficult times.”
Donald Thompson, The Employee Engagement Handbook
What Leaders Are Saying
“Most leaders know their culture has a problem. The EEGM gave us the language and the structure to actually do something about it. Donald Thompson does not just diagnose the gap, he gives you a system you can run. That is what separates this from every other engagement conversation I have had.”
Greg Boone , CEO, Walk West
“What the EEGM does that most frameworks do not is connect leadership behavior directly to what employees actually need. It is not theory. It is a system. And when you follow it, the outcomes are measurable.”
Josh Haymond , Managing Partner, VACO Raleigh
“Trust is earned every day, and it shows up in how people work together. Donald Thompson gets that. In The Employee Engagement Handbook, he cuts through the noise and offers practical ways for leaders to build trust through clear communication, psychological safety, and strong relationships.”
Bianca Freedman , President, LG2 Toronto
Frequently Asked Questions
It is a practical guide for leaders who treat employee engagement as a business discipline. It is built around the Employee Engagement Growth Model, which connects six leadership strategies, four individual employee needs, and four team outcomes in one operating framework.
Move From Engagement Scores to Execution.
The Executive Brief puts the business case for employee engagement, the Employee Engagement Growth Model, and five questions for the executive team in one short document.
Download the Executive Brief