Dale Carnegie of India organized the third edition of their annual roundtable series, the Dale Carnegie Expert Forum, in Bengaluru. The event is an exclusive thought leadership event that brings together some of India’s foremost thought leaders and opinion-makers to brainstorm, challenge conventions and provide perspective on concepts that are critical for organizational success.

The theme of this year’s roundtable discussion was: Employee Engagement: Making Engagement a Daily Priority for Leaders. An esteemed group of HR leaders discussed real issues and brainstormed solutions in the context of employee engagement, senior leadership, workplace culture and future organizational challenges, and shared insights from around the world.

The event marked the launch of their research report titled ‘Employee Engagement: It’s Time to Go ‘All-In’: Making Engagement a Daily Priority for Leaders’. The discussions of the roundtable were based on a survey of this report which highlights the fact that despite realizing the importance of employee engagement, most longitudinal studies show that the average level of employee engagement in recent years is essentially unchanged. There are enough instances to prove that engaged employees are a competitive advantage, and the impact on the bottom line is indisputable. Yet, the research findings revealed:

• 70% leaders believe that employee engagement has a strong impact on financial performance, meaning the remaining 3 in 10 question the validity of that link
• 22% reported that they believe their organizations are spending too much time and money trying to engage employees
• 26% say efforts to engage employees are a distraction from getting real work done, revealing a disillusioned group of leaders unlikely to embrace further initiatives

Pallavi Jha, Chairperson and Managing Director, Dale Carnegie of India said, “Employee engagement should be an ongoing effort and a daily priority for every organization. Engaged employees are a competitive advantage, and a company’s best asset is its human capital.”

Some of the eminent delegates present at the roundtable were Rajkamal Vempati from Axis Bank, Ritu Rakhra from Dell and Ajay Venkatesh from Ernst & Young. The panellists present at the roundtable were from different countries from the Dale Carnegie global fraternity. Andreas Iffland is a Carnegie Master from Germany, Gerard Hei is CEO of Dale Carnegie Taiwan and Mr. Dan Heffernan, who moderated the discussion, is Chief Sales Officer from Dale Carnegie & Associates.