We all have to work to live. Work can be enjoyable and even fun at times. But work is mostly something we do because we have to do it. That doesn't mean you should give up one third of your life and wonder every day if what you do for a living is worth the trouble.

If your company does not engage its employees - recognizing and rewarding measureable contributions by everyone in the work force to the company's success and profitability - you feel like your efforts are wasted or no different than any other person in the office.  If you’re in management, you may wonder if the people working for you even care if you succeed. Your company's future is at stake - and that's the message of the MacLeod Report.

An innovative and remarkable body of work, The Macleod Report, was released in July of this year. This report results from a large scale effort in the UK to understand how - and IF -companies measure their employees' contributions to the organization's success while gauging their levels of inspiration and passion for achievement. The report includes case studies of actual successes and failures for companies that actively engage their associates or don't give the matter any attention beyond handing out the employee handbook and showing new hires where the lunchroom is.

Before you roll your eyes and think "another feel-good report" from a bureaucracy, take the time to read this report and discover how successful institutions and organizations not only keep their key employees and contributors, but inspire and motivate those who are sitting back and just collecting their paychecks. The results can be beneficial to those at all levels of skill and responsibility. And it just might keep your company in business, as a leader and innovator, for years to come.

This is good stuff.  My question is why does the U.S. have to wait for the UK to lead the way on this type of initiative? Why don't we see any US-based national surveys of this type?  If there ARE domestic agendas out there for such wide-ranging studies, they’re being kept as closely guarded secrets.

These days it seems that the federal government has its hand in everyone’s business, rightly or wrongly.  Much discussion has taken place over the role of our federal government in business.  These discussions have reverberated throughout our history.  In high school we learn about economic policies ranging from the Laissez Faire attitudes of Adam Smith to the heavy handed protectionism of Alexander Hamilton.  What I personally would like to see from the U.S. Government is helpful studies like the Macleod Report. 

Depending on which statistics you believe 30-50% of all new businesses in the U.S. fail within 5 years.  Studies like the ones conducted for the Macleod Report would seem almost imperative to improving these numbers and might very well be the best money ever spent by the U.S. Government.

Research (and the resulting guidance) from Washington on how to more efficiently run a productive and profitable company, to the betterment of everyone involved, would seem more helpful than many of the inane research studies that I see being funded these days. 

As one of the standard bearers of capitalism we should be on the forefront of this type of research.  I believe this is a great way to gain economic stimulus from the ground up.  It has been proven time and time again, engaged workers are more productive workers.  More productive workers take better care of customers and that equals better profits and a stronger company.

And that one third of our lives that we spend working, seems less and less like work.

Shawn Devlin
Marketing Research Analyst
Survey Software Online