It's easy for managers and organizations to assume their employees are happy and engaged. Here's a wake-up call, courtesy of a recent Gallup poll: Roughly 70 percent of American workers describe themselves as either disengaged or actively disengaged employees.

In other words, less than one-third of your workers likely are happy, engaged and productive — a number fraught with repercussions in terms of reduced productivity, costly employee turnover and poor customer service. "Everyone else is just there to eat the free food," says Jay Forte, a noted business-performance consultant, speaker and workplace coach (www.fireupyouremployees.com).

If these employees — let's call them the 70 percenters — aren't enough to send human resource directors into apoplectic mode, consider another Gallup statistic: About 65 percent of employees admit they do just enough work to avoid being fired, and another 17 percent coast along with a "Go ahead and do it, I'll find another job" mentality.

What's behind these depressing numbers? Forte firmly believes much of it stems from an outdated management philosophy — a vestigial remnant, if you will, from the industrial age, when jobs were more skill-based and centered on producing products, rather than talent- and intelligence-based and focused on providing good service.

"Back then, people were basically doing the same job each day," Forte explains. "But today, we're not pushing levers on machines any more. Virtually every situation requires workers to think about it and choose a different response. Employees must pack their brain when they pack their lunch and make decisions at work.

"But while the work we do now is very different, the management approach has not changed," he continues. "Too many managers still use a tell-them-what-to-do (or command-and-control) approach. But employees in an intellectual workplace need to be engaged and inspired. The old management ways prevent them from performing well."

Organizations and managers must realize that in today's economy and workplace, the one thing that most impacts their bottom line is the collective genius of their employees, Forte says. Human capital, not fixed assets, is the most valuable resource. As examples, consider companies like Google and Zappos.

"It's not the assets they own, but the brain power of their employees," he says. "Organizations that realize this ... will transform human capital into financial capital and provide the best services at the most efficient cost possible."

Right person, right job

So how does an organization rouse employees from their disengaged stupor? First and foremost, put the right people in the right positions. That means look less at their overall work experience and instead strive to determine what Forte calls their "hard-wired abilities ... their talents and strengths." Then put employees in positions that play to those strengths.

That also means hiring employees based on their talents, not just their experience. That, in turn, will require a totally different mindset when, for example, companies develop job ads; it's imperative they clearly define what talents the job requires.

"Don't advertise that your group needs a customer service rep," he explains. "Instead, say you need a person who can solve problems and see opportunities, and upholds a personal standard of excellence. If you just say you need a customer service rep, everyone who has done customer service work before and hated it will apply. You need to rewrite those job ads so they talk about behaviors, then source experienced people who exhibit those talents and behaviors the job requires. Put those together and employees will soar."

Finding the right new hires may also require an unconventional approach to where your organization runs job advertisements, Forte says. For example, a company looking for what he calls a "bottom-liner" — someone who will push for big results — should place ads in an event program for marathons and triathlons.

"Think about where you can find people who possess the behaviors you need," he points out. "Where do they live or shop, or what clubs do they join? Then everyone who applies is someone who makes sense for the job. You can't put a social person in an analytical job and vice-versa."

Managing expectations

Next, companies and organizations must set clear performance expectations. As Forte likes to put it, they need to define what "done right" looks like for a particular job.

"Most people don't know, believe it or not. Managers think they just need to tell employees to do things, but they rarely give a clear definition of what 'done right' looks like," he says. "After employees know what a successful outcome looks like, they can choose how best to approach the job."

Lastly, managers must provide constant and recurring feedback — even for happy, engaged employees. "This creates a powerful rapport between management and employees," Forte says. "Applaud them when they do things right and provide guidance in areas where they don't perform well. That's the 'going from good to great' formula."

In the long run, Forte believes that resistance to a more engaging management style will diminish as more and more Baby Boomers retire, changing managerial mindsets from a command-and-control mentality to an engage-and-inspire mode, where managers are more of a coach than a supervisor.

"That's not how most people do it now, and they're not quite sure how to do it because they've never had to," he notes. "There are so many levels of behavior and culture that keep companies connected to doing things the way they've always done them.

"But I think our approach is getting legs because organizations can't stand it any more," he continues. "The pain of staying the same is worse than the pain of changing. It's not hard; it's just different. We try to create a practical, easy way to do it."