Employee engagement is one of the crazy buzzwords of the moment. Actually, more like of the last several years. A lot of employers and managers are feeling discouraged, fed up, and just plain down about the dismal numbers in Gallup’s employee engagement polls. With only 30% of the U.S. workforce categorized as “actively engaged” and $450-550 billion in lost productivity dollars per year from symptoms of disengagement, who wouldn’t feel borderline desperate to get a larger slice of the engagement pie? With all that hunger for a little more mozzarella, there’s oodles and doodles of advice out there on how you can up your company’s engagement. In this month’s 5 Fascinating Finds feature, we’ve rounded up five articles that’ll tell you everything you need to know without wading through an endless sea of “Top 10 Tips.” Take a gander at these premium articles with varied but insightful advice and decide what works best for you!

Flash back to your high school years.  You’re sitting in class listening to your teacher drone on about isotopes, when you hear the words, “group project.”  Naturally your stomach lurches at the thought of this upcoming assignment. You can already feel the fatigue from having to pull more than your fair share of the workload and are already dreading the inevitable personality conflicts that will ensue. 

I love to play! Play is a word that’s been in my vocabulary from a very early age. As kids we love to play, but as adults we sometimes forget how important play can be in our lives, especially at work. Play can be viewed as a waste of time and resources. I beg to differ. When done well, play can be very beneficial and lucrative.  Here are four tips for helping you create some structured (and fun) playtime in your office:

The disengaged employee - You can spot them a mile away. Their "can't do" attitude and general unpleasantness sours nearly every cubicle or meeting room they walk into. According to Glassdoor, seventy-percent of the American workforce is comprised of individuals who are “checked out” of their work responsibilities and sleepwalking through their career.

If International Day of Awesomeness isn’t something to celebrate, then I don’t know what is.  Rumor has it, this quirky little holiday was created in honor of Chuck Norris’ birthday, but I’m choosing to believe it began because it’s the day our brilliant Marketing Coordinator, Audrey was born ( birthdays are kind of a big deal around here).