The Extra Mile
21 Jan 08

Recent research of almost 90,000 employees worldwide* revealed that employees do not believe that senior management is doing enough to motivate them to go the extra mile at work and contribute to their organisations' success.

Yet studies have directly correlated high levels of engagement with high levels of financial performance and confirm that it is engagement that leads to performance not the other way round. For instance a study of 680,000 people* over one year divided 50 global organizations into those with more engaged employees and those with less engaged employees and found that the more engaged organizations grew their operating income by 19% and those with the less engaged reduced theirs by 33%.

With such compelling evidence it is clear employee engagement, and in particular the way management goes about engaging staff, is critical to a company's success. And yet engagement has been reduced to a management buzzword, bandied around as something desirable, but with little insight in to how to achieve it.

The Extra Mile rectifies this, showing leaders how to achieve competitive advantage by harnessing the commitment of their people, and engaging them with the company's aims.

It has been written by authors who combine both practitioner and academic perspectives. David MacLeod has successfully led organisations through financial turnarounds, global mergers and through marketing led innovation by focusing on employee engagement. He has latterly advised organisations, lectured and written on the topic of employee engagement. Chris Brady is a business academic and author have written the best selling book “The 90 Minute Manager” applying the lessons of sport to general management.

David commented that “It was during my experience helping to reinvigorate the Dulux brand that I first became aware of the power of engagement. That wasn't what we called it at the time, but more and more I appreciated the enormous potential that could be released by harnessing people's creativity and energy, and encouraging them to believe that goals were attainable. This was confirmed when leading organisations through financial turnarounds and global mergers. I realised that the level of engagement in an organisation predicted success.”

The Extra Mile harnesses the data from over 33 million respondents and original research with over 50 senior leaders in the private and public sectors including with companies such as BAE, WPP, Boots, RBS and Sainsburys. Not only did this research prove the financial benefits of engagement, it also highlighted that this is a multi-faceted and often complex area, which relies on concepts such as trust, respect and pride. The analysis shows that organisations have aligned their people (knowing what to do) but not fully engaged them (wanting to do it). Concepts that are easy to pay lip service to, but more difficult to abide by in the hurly burly of the workplace.

The book is designed to be of immediate and practical value to managers (including tips on what managers can do on Monday to start off on the road to engagement). After presenting a systematic investigation into the theories that lie behind engagement, it goes on to give managers the tools they need to engage their teams, so that they will go the extra mile and help the organisation grow and thrive.

	The Extra Mile
	Author	David MacLeod, Chris Brady
	Pub Date	19 Dec 2007
	Price	£21.99
	Publisher	Financial Times/ Prentice Hall
	ISBN10	0273703943
	ISBN13	9780273703945
		Click here for further information or to purchase The Extra Mile.

For further information please contact:
Elie Ball, PR Manager
t: 07803 392 710
e: elie.ball@pearson.com

To view our latest news releases, please click here.