Here is an excerpt from an article written by Frank Kalman for Talent Management magazine. To check out all the resources and sign up for a free subscription to the TM and/or Chief Learning Officer magazines published by MedfiaTec, please click here.

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Workers aren’t necessarily disengaged — they’re burnt out.

Here’s how to promote sustainable engagement to enable them to go the extra mile.

Leave it to a time of economic uncertainty for organizations to become enamored with the topic of employee engagement. Business is bad — or not what it should, or could, be — which means employee morale, thus engagement, is low.

In fact, according to a recent study by professional services firm Towers Watson, roughly 63 percent of U.S. employees are not fully engaged in their work and are struggling to cope with an environment that doesn’t provide sufficient support.

To Julie Gebauer, a managing director with the firm, the problem is that workers are simply burnt out. For firms to promote higher levels of engagement, Gebauer said, more time and effort should be spent creating an environment that enables engagement on a stronger level. To do this, talent management should focus on two primary ingredients of so-called sustainable engagement — enablement and energy.

Part of the reason employees are burnt out is that they’re spending a lot of time fending off obstacles that get in the way of sustainable engagement.

To enable engagement means to give employees the tools, resources and support so they can get their work done efficiently, Gebauer said. A lack of sufficient technology or an unsupportive manager can both act as obstacles.

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To read the complete article, please click here.

Frank Kalman is an associate editor at Talent Management.