PEOPLE.IDEAS.PERFORMANCE

99 engagement deals just with the factors that are of most direct interest to firms and managers - these are the factors describing the main features of positive employee behaviour that could lead to highly effective productivity and performance of employees, which may consequently increase total benefits ot the firm (Gems, 2015). 6RXUFH http://www.gallup.com/businessjournal/150932/involving-employees-change.aspx 7+( %(1(),76 2) (03/2<(( (1*$*(0(17 Inspite of the fact that some authors such as Byrne (Byrne, 2014) consider employee engagement a relatively novel concept, its highly positive impact on all stakeholders enabled its fast and smooth acceptance by managers and employees. Based on the results of an extensive study published by Gebauer (see Gebauer, Lowman, 2008), majority of the surveyed companies with high employee engagement had a 19 percent increase in operating income and a 28 percent growth in earnings per share, whereas in the companies with low levels of engagement their operating income dropped more than 32 percent and their earnings per share declined almost 11 percent within the surveyed period. Taking most of relevant studies into consideration could bring us to conclusion that there is a strong correlation between employee engagement and company performance, which may be one of the reasons why most successful firms nowadays are striving to implement the system of employee engagement in their working environment. Likewise, Dale Carnegie Organization suggess that managers should focus on engagement since: 1) high levels of engagement leads to employee retention; 2) engaged employees are highly productive; 3) workplaces with highly engaged employees attract those who want to work hard for their firm.