The notion of employee engagement has been a hot topic in the last few years. But what is it, exactly? And where does it come from? The Conference Board recently asked that question, looking at the data from studies from multiple companies like Gallup, Towers Perrin, Blessing White, the Corporate Leadership Council. Here's what they
came up with:
The Conference Board looked across this mass of data and came up with a blended definition and key themes that crossed all of the studies. They define employee engagement as "a heightened emotional connection that an employee feels for his or her organization, that influences him or her to exert greater discretionary effort to his or her work".
At least four of the studies agreed on these eight key drivers.
- Trust and integrity – how well managers communicate and 'walk the talk'.
- Nature of the job –Is it mentally stimulating day-to-day?
- Line of sight between employee performance and company performance – Does the employee understand how their work contributes to the company's performance?
- Career Growth opportunities –Are there future opportunities for growth?
- Pride about the company – How much self-esteem does the employee feel by being associated with their company?
- Coworkers/team members – significantly influence one's level of engagement
- Employee development – Is the company making an effort to develop the employee's skills?
- Relationship with one's manager – Does the employee value his or her relationship with his or her manager?
They also took a look at why employee engagement matters:
According the report, employee engagement is a very big deal. There is clear and mounting evidence that high levels of employee engagement keenly correlates to individual, group and corporate performance in areas such as retention, turnover, productivity, customer service and loyalty.
And this is not just by small margins. While differences varied from study to study, highly engaged employees outperform their disengaged counterparts by a whopping 20 – 28 percentage points!
Can you say competitive advantage?