In today's disjointed world, a large percentage people say they feel disconnected and apathetic in regards to their jobs. With all the negative noise streaming in from multiple modalities, people are often overwhelmed with demotivating and disturbing messages. These negative messages get in the way and distract people from thinking straight and staying focused at work.

Feeling a strong connection with the mission and vision of a company is one of the top global drivers of employee engagement. Promotional Consultant Today shares these five keys to creating company-wide alignment that boosts engagement, morale and overall success.

1. Share and inspire a compelling mission. Great leaders regularly bring people closer to their purpose and the purpose of their work. If the vision for the organization is not inspiring—or is only to make a profit—it is pretty challenging to inspire others and get them to rally around it.

Employee engagement research states that for people to feel a connection with their work, they need to be able to envision themselves achieving purpose at work. An astute leader nurtures alignment among their workforce by linking the key performance indicators of each role in the organization to the overall key performance indicators and objectives of the business.

2. Institutionalize and perpetuate guiding principles and values: Building guiding principles and core values into the culture is a very powerful way to institutionalize and perpetuate the right behaviors throughout the organization. Leaders who are serious about their core values and guiding principles discipline themselves and their organization to only hire people who are aligned and have the ability to demonstrate those values and principles through the right on-the- job behavior.

3. Clearly articulate expectations and intended outcomes. Organizational objectives and desired outcomes are best achieved when clearly articulated and repeated often. Business leaders often voice frustration because their message in its true intent is not reaching all the ranks. The reality is most people need to hear things seven times before committing it to memory. Therefore role requirements, goals and objectives also need to be repeated frequently enough to ensure everyone involved is aware of the game plan and what it looks like to win.

4. Foster excitement and celebrate forward momentum. Alignment happens intrinsically when people are gathered together in service of a mission bigger than themselves. They are called forth by the purpose and the mission, and then measure their success by milestones and accomplishments along the way. A leader who celebrates forward movement, learning from failures, taking risks and working collaboratively to remove barriers and to advance is a leader who teaches his or her troops to keep their eye on the prize.

5. Build trust through open communication and clarity. Trusting senior leaders and management is a critical driver of employee engagement. Integrity and open communication is one of the most crucial behaviors of highly effective leaders. People do not trust a leader of an organization who does not follow through on promises or has a reputation as someone who re-negotiates agreements after the fact. Creating boundaries and agreements as well as honoring those agreements and boundaries is where the rubber meets the road with honoring one's word.

Building and fostering an aligned and purposeful workforce is a sure way to optimize, energize and retain your organization's best people.

Source: Magi Graziano, CEO of Conscious Hiring® and Development, is a speaker, employee recruitment and engagement expert, and author of The Wealth of Talent. Through her expansive knowledge and captivating presentations, Graziano provides her customers with actionable, practical ideas to maximize their effectiveness and ability to create high-performing teams. With more than 20 years' experience as a top producer in the recruitment and search industry, she empowers and enables leaders to bring transformational thinking to the day-to-day operation.