According to a 2009 Gallup survey, the majority of Australian workers (82%) are not engaged with their work. This is obviously a problem from both an employee and a company perspective. The post on recruitment website Destination Talent, called The majority of Australians don’t like their jobs, goes on to say that this lack of engagement costs Australian companies between $33-42 billion each year.

Surveys of employees from the most junior to the most senior within companies show that employees value good leadership, having career development opportunities and working for a company that has a good culture and values aligned with their own.

Clearly there is some disconnect between what companies are offering and what employees are experiencing. Most people don’t go to work to do a bad job and be disengaged. They want to experience challenges, achievements and a sense of purpose in their work, yet companies need to consider how to better facilitate this, particularly in a tough economic climate where funds may be limited for further training and development, promotions or pay increases.

One way to create a more connected workforce is via the concept of ‘job crafting’. According to the paper What is job crafting and why does it matter?by Justin Berg, Jane Dutton and Amy Wrzesniewski: “Job crafting captures the active changes employees make to their own job designs in ways that can bring about numerous positive outcomes, including engagement, job satisfaction, resilience and thriving.”

Job crafting is a concept that is not readily discussed, however is certainly one worth learning more about if you company is looking to increase employee engagement.

What is job crafting and why does it matter? offers a comprehensive insight into the concept, including how the process benefits employees, managers and companies alike. It also includes some of the drawbacks, if the process is not managed correctly. One of the interesting points the paper makes is that employees are often job-crafting their roles, without their managers being aware. They do so via assessing the most viable options available to them with the purpose of achieving a more satisfying worklife for themselves. It’s not necessarily to benefit the company – though companies can leverage this by having more formal job-crafting processes in place.

To read the full blog post visit Leading Company

I have written about this brilliant book before, ‘Power – The 48 Laws’ by Robert Greene & Joost Elffers.  It never ceases to amaze me how far fetched, yet sometimes relevant these laws are in today’s workplaces.  Some of the messages really resonant and can assist people in both better managing and advancing their careers.

An extract from the Law of ‘Keep Your Hands Clean’ states “As a leader you may imagine constant diligence, and the appearance of working harder than anyone else, signify power. Actually, though, they have the opposite effect: They imply weakness. The truly powerful seem to never be in a hurry or overburdened. While others work their fingers to the bone, they take their leisure. They know how to find the right people to put in the effort while they save their energy and keep their hands out of the fire.”

I suspect if you reflect on your career or those around you – examples of such ‘leadership’ or getting ahead can be found via the use of scapegoats.