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Two issues many of our readers care about: Employee engagement and well-being. These are also areas that many instinctively feel are closely related. Are they?

Gallup provides an interesting take on the question, asking: “Many organizations measure and evaluate their employees' engagement, while others focus on improving their workers' well-being. But what happens when companies try to improve both? Does strong well-being take a highly engaged workforce and make it even better? And how can each one be applied to enhance the other?”

To find out, the research group looked at data from their employee engagement and well-being polls. Among the issues they addressed: “How do employees who are engaged and who exhibit high well-being in at least four of the five elements fare compared with engaged workers who have high well-being in only three or fewer elements? Does adding high well-being to high engagement have a beneficial effect on key outcomes?”

The findings are fascinating and important: The mix of high engagement and well-being is extremely powerful:

• “Compared with employees who have high engagement but otherwise exhibit low levels of well-being, those who are engaged and who have high well-being in at least four of the five elements are 30% more likely not to miss any workdays because of poor health in any given month.”
• “They also miss 70% fewer workdays because of poor health over the course of a year.”

In reviewing the report, Jane Miller, Gallup’s Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President, told Womenetics: “Physical wellbeing is what people rate as the most important element to ultimately drive a life well lived. Workplaces must encourage time in the day for associates to work out before they come to work, at work or after work. In addition, the more there is a focus on healthy behaviors, from benefits that incent good habits, to team activities, to expectations of good health, the more aware employees are that the organization truly cares about their health and well-being.”

Other Gallup results shows that “employees who are engaged and have high well-being are:”

• “27% more likely to report ‘excellent' performance in their own job at work”
• “27% more likely to report ‘excellent' performance by their organization”
• “37% more likely to report always recovering ‘fully' after illness, injury or hardship”
• “59% less likely to look for a job with a different organization in the next 12 months”