Within the competitive world of management ideas, employee engagement is emerging as the master key that unlocks performance. Successive research exercises over the past five or six years, including a large amount of work sponsored by the CIPD, have shown that without engagement, all the clever HR policies in the world, let alone investment in technology, marketing and innovation, will fail to deliver sustained competitive advantage.

But what exactly is employee engagement and how do you bring it about? While there are many definitions, few would disagree that engaged employees are those that go the extra mile to do a great job, who show a “passion for work” and whose grasp of their role goes beyond mere “satisfaction”. Research shows that in some successful organisations, 70 per cent or more of the workforce record these attitudes, although the UK norm seems to be around 30 to 50 per cent.