I saw an advance copy and know that Alan has been a world-class leader in the employee engagement field for many years. He is usually credited with inventing the well-know term: employee branding.
Knowing a lot about a subject can make for a dull book, but not here. Reading it, Alan's voice comes straight through, as if he is speaking directly to you. That is the mark of a consummate expert who is passionate about making a difference.
Alan admits his focus is on nurturing employee engagement, and encouraging a wholesale review of what you doing the name of engagement, but his end game is achieving better and sustainable organisational performance - i.e. real results. In this current economic climate, most organisations need results.
That is why it should be required reading for CEOs as well as the HR and communications professionals who implement the employee engagement programmes.
As Alan says, "For longer than I care to remember, annual reports have stated that employees are the organisation's greatest asset, but more often than not, the behaviours exhibited by these
organisations do not reflect that sentiment."
He reckons there are plenty of initiatives in the employee engagement space, but they are tinkering around the issue. They won't work until organisations get the basics right. The vast majority don't. So if you need a straight-talking guide to what will work to transform employee engagement in terms of real results, read this book.
Alan has some great tools for measuring the results and I know his consultancy walks the talk.
He is a good speaker on the subject too.