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Employee engagement has become something of an unattainable Holy Grail in American business. There are thousands of column inches written about the benefits of true employee engagement. Because one of these benefits includes increased revenue, U.S. companies are on a mission to attain employee engagement, even if they’re not quite sure what it is and how it’s attained.

The results haven’t been so great.

According to a study by Bersin, $720 million has been spent in the U.S. on employee engagement solutions. According to a study by Gallup, only 13 percent of U.S. employees consider themselves truly engaged in their work. See the gap? While performance management and workforce optimization solutions can help by acting as tools, it seems clear that employee engagement isn’t something that can be bought in a box or ordered by the CEO in a strongly worded interoffice memo.

Real employee engagement starts, according to Forbes’ Meghan Biro, with a strong company culture that’s real and not just part of the logo or written on posters in the company lobby.

“A company culture that’s authentic and deep will translate through the employer brand, conveying the same tone, the same mission, the same values to job seekers and new hires that it does to fully entrenched (and hopefully engaged) employees,” wrote Biro. “If your employees aren’t engaged, that’s a serious detriment to your employer brand, and that’s what going to translate down the pike. Proof is in the pudding — or not — an organization without a strong company culture will lose out to companies that do.”

So how do companies build a great employment culture? One of the most important steps is to realize that they have lives. Companies that respect that their employees are real human beings and not machines to be pushed to their limits are those that get the most out of their workforce … not through fear or intimidation, but because employees WANT to do their best.

For companies with strong cultures, such as Apple and Google (News - Alert), it’s about fostering innovation, creativity and teamwork as part of the company culture. It becomes a message that effectively keeps people inspired, fresh and happy, according to Biro.

“Job seekers are savvier than ever and will turn on a dime: a company that touts ‘long hours in the trenches’ translates as ‘doesn’t respect my need for a life outside of work,’” she wrote. “One that doesn’t address childcare and benefits for a family translates as ‘we are more important than your family.’ That won’t work, particularly given this intensely competitive recruiting culture, not to mention ever-increasing workplace options.”

While management through fear – fear of retribution or humiliation, or fear of job loss – may work to motivate the workforce in the very short-term, it’s not a strategy for future success. By treating employees like humans, companies can inspire loyalty and improved performance.