Leaders Should Engage to Retain and Drive Employee Performance According to a recent survey conducted by Right Management, an astonishing 83% of the North American employees polled indicated that they plan to actively seek a new position in 2014. In addition, Harvard Business Review published a research report in 2013 which indicated that 71% of the 550 executives surveyed, placed employee engagement as a key factor in their ability to achieve organizational success. However, only 24% of these same executives indicated that they believe their workforce is highly engaged. These two sets of findings provide a great deal of insight into the job satisfaction levels of employees, as well as point to a need for organizational leaders to make employee engagement a priority. Employee engagement is not just important for retention; employee engagement has consistently been linked to employee and business performance. While senior leaders play a major role in creating a culture that facilitates employee engagement, the employee-manager relationship is even more critical - specifically, the way in which managers continuously manage the performance and development of employees. Unfortunately, recent research by Dale Carnegie found that 80% of employees who were disengaged were also dissatisfied with their current manager. Employee Performance Management is a Key Leadership Competency