It's no news that an engaged workforce is critical to organizational performance. One telling observation comes from a 2008 survey by leadership-development company BlessingWhite: engaged employees stay for what they give (because they find fulfillment in their work), while disengaged workers plan to stay for what they get (e.g. benefits). According to the current Gallup Management Journal, however, there's a health cost of disengagement to employees -- one that ends up in yet further detriment to the organization.

According to the Gallup Journal, in 2000, clinical depression in workers cost U.S. companies $26.1 billion directly (in the cost of treatment) and indirectly cost $51.5 billion from decreased productivity and absenteeism. Another study, from 2003, according to Gallup, found that workers with depression were five times less productive than workers without depression.  

Most recently, Gallup studied the impact of disengagement on mental health from February 2008 to April 2009 and found 4.6 percent of engaged workers had been diagnosed with depression for the first time. Meanwhile, 8.8 percent of actively disengaged workers were diagnosed with the mood disorder for the first time. In other words, those who are actively disengaged from their work are twice as likely to be diagnosed with clinical depression for the first time.

Even if you don't care at all about your employees' well-being per se, you still have to pay attention to it for its financial and productivity impacts on your team and company. The BlessingWhite report concludes with a number of tips to keep your staff engaged. Here are a few especially salient ones:

Make sure you yourself are engaged. If the manager's checked out, what hope does the rest of the team have?

Look for signs in the hiring process. This is one of the many reasons fit is such an important consideration in hiring. Make sure the candidate is a good match with the team culture. In addition, try to discern whether the prospect is open to engagement efforts. Some people by disposition simply are not.

Know your staff better. Give equal face time to all your team members. Not only does it let them know you're noticing their contributions, but it also helps you suss out where in the engagement spectrum each contributor is, enabling you to tailor your engagement efforts more effectively.

Assign projects to team members thoughtfully. Employee engagement in layman's terms is about how much someone is into his job. Consider each team member's particular strengths and interests and give them work that is compatible with that employee. And if the match results in good performance, for heaven's sake don't forget to acknowledge the job well done.