Companies want productive and engaged employees. But not many know when and how to work on employee engagement. First, it is critical to understand that employee engagement depends on their day-to-day role. After all, those who connect with their job are more motivated to work toward the company's goals.   In this episode of Powered by Instinct, Amy Bruske, the President of the Kolbe Corp, joins host Stephanie Clergé to consider what makes for an engaged culture. The two discuss why it is critical to identify employees' strengths and align them with roles within your organization and why employee engagement starts with the hiring process.   Guest-at-a-Glance  Name: Amy Bruske  What she does: Amy is the President of Kolbe Corp.  Company: Kolbe Corp  Noteworthy: Amy is one of the company's three Senior Master Consultants. She is also in demand for executive coaching and team building by a wide range of businesses worldwide.  Where to find Amy: LinkedIn  Podcast Insights  🎙️ To build an engaged culture, you must first identify your employees' strengths. As a business leader, you may have people with similar skills and experience, but that doesn’t mean that they function in the same way. Therefore, it is important to know and value your employees’ unique talents and strengths if you want to engage them. ''You have to start thinking about people's strengths. People loving their jobs means that they've got to be in the zone every day. So, I'm looking at individual strengths and how we can capitalize on those.''  🎙️ Identifying employees' strengths helps you create productive teams. Just because someone can complete certain tasks, it doesn't mean that it's something they want to dedicate their career to. Identifying their strengths helps you put the right people in the proper position and pair them with employees with whom they can collaborate successfully. "Optimizing strengths is about strategically collaborating and combining them. Just a little bit of information makes a huge difference in identifying where the team will get stuck. Why do meetings go on too long? Why are we missing goals? It's not just because people don't have the time or don't care. Oftentimes, we've got the wrong people collaborating and working together."  🎙️ Alignment between strengths and job descriptions prevents burnout. People who are "in the zone daily," as Amy describes it, are more likely to stay with an employer for an extended period, work on a shared goal with enjoyment, and experience success in their professional life. Otherwise, they risk facing lots of stress. "All of our research shows that if someone is working against what is natural for them, it increases stress levels. And if left unmanaged, that's when someone's going to burn out — that's when they're going to quit your organization. They don't always know why the stress is there, but the more aligned people are to the role and what their needs are, we find that those are the most engaged employees."