I have been doing a lot of browsing on BusinessWeek's Business Exchange (BX) content-sharing and social networking platform lately (Winning Workplaces has a profile there; check out the widget on the lower right of our blog template).  When it comes to all things workplace team building and employee engagement, you can't go wrong with this free portal that includes articles from many sources, not just BW.

I found four recent ones on employee engagement best practices on BX that I wanted to call to your attention.  Here goes...

1. "The cost of poor internal communications" - MediaTile digital signage solutions.  Discusses and links to a Siemens Enterprise Communications study of over 500 small and midsize businesses across the world which finds that poor team building cuts into their productivity by 40%.  This, Chuck Gose writes, translates to increased operating costs, fewer satisfied customers, and lessened competitive advantage.

2. "Increased Employee Engagement Leads to Increased Customer Engagement" - Customer Management IQ.  Shaun Smith builds on the premise of a post I wrote back in February, citing seven leading customer and training/development studies.  Worth the price of admission are hard numbers on net sales and gross profits per employee that are at greater rates among companies that devote more training to employees than those that do not.

3. "Being happy at work makes all the difference" - Miramichi Leader.  Kim Drisdelle delivers a poignant editorial on what a novel concept happiness at work is, and laments that this is the exception rather than the norm.  Her greatest advice is perhaps, "Today's employers need fully engaged employees who are creative.  In other words they require people who are happy because it is 'happy" people who tend to get things done."

4. "Be Flexible, Attract Talent" - BW.  Well-known business writer Marshall Goldsmith speaks to the VP of business development of California-based Flexperience on how employee engagement strategies that promote flex work arrangements can greatly advance companies' efforts to find and retain top talent.  Notably, the article contains some good, firsthand advice for employees who want to work in nontraditional ways.

As I mentioned, I've been favoring BX lately for my news fix on this topic.  Where do you go for this?  I'd love to see your sources – please drop me a comment below.