LAS VEGAS— During the opening session at Carlson Hotels Worldwide Annual Conference currently being held here, Marcus Buckingham of the Gallup Organization discussed the importance of franchisee participation in Carlsons 12 Question Employee Survey (Q12). Developed by Gallup, the survey is designed to determine the level of employee productivity. Accoring to Buckingham, 70% of U.S. employees are “not engaged” in their profession. He stated there are three types of employees: engaged, which are employees that are loyal, productive, and not likely to leave to the competition; not engaged, which include employess that while producitve, may not feel connected to the company and are more likely to leave; and activley disengaged, including employees that are physically working but have mentally quit years ago. Carlsons Q12 determined that Radisson Hotels and Country Inns & Suites that received the most positive employee responses also had the highest RevPAR. Gallups research shows that there are three ways to manage employees to increase their engagement . First, the best employees are those that are managed to create outcomes using different behaviors. Second, managers need to understand that while some behaviors may be learned, many cannot. For example, talent is not trainable whereas knowledge and skills are. Third, managers need to focus on strength building in order to achieve success rather than weakness fixing to prevent failure. —Diana M. Rodriguez