What is Employee Engagement?

The term employee engagement relates to the level of an employee's commitment and connection to an organization. Employee engagement has emerged as a critical driver of business success in today's competitive marketplace. High levels of engagement promote retention of talent, foster customer loyalty, and improve organizational performance and stakeholder value.

What Is Employee Engagement? And What It's Not

Researchers and consulting firms have developed varied definitions of employee engagement. They have also created categories to describe and distinguish differing levels of worker engagement.

Although the concepts of employee engagement and job satisfaction are somewhat interrelated, they are not synonymous. Job satisfaction has more to do with whether the employee is personally happy than with whether the employee is actively involved in advancing organizational goals.

It's important to understand the behaviors of engaged and disengaged employees, and when you find disengaged employees you need to know how to improve employee engagement. 

Behaviors of engaged and disengaged employees:

What Is the Difference Between Employee Engagement and Job Satisfaction?

The terms engagement and job satisfaction are often used interchangeably. However, research has revealed that although there is some overlap in the drivers of engagement and satisfaction, there are also key differences in the components that determine each.

Some experts define engagement in terms of employees' feelings and behavior. Engaged employees might report feeling focused and intensely involved in the work they do. They are enthusiastic and have a sense of urgency.

Engaged behavior is persistent, proactive, and adaptive in ways that expand the job roles as necessary. Engaged employees go beyond job descriptions in, for example, service delivery or innovation.

Engaged employees feel focused with a sense of urgency and concentrate on how they approach what they do, while satisfied employees feel pleasant, content, and gratified.

The level of employee job satisfaction in an organization often relates to factors over which the organization has control (such as pay, benefits, and job security), whereas engagement levels are largely in direct control or significantly influenced by the employee's manager (through job assignments, trust, recognition, day-to-day communications, etc.).

What Drives Employee Engagement?

Extensive research has been conducted to determine the factors that influence employee engagement levels. The research has indicated that there are both organizational drivers and managerial drivers.

In today's digital age, less person-to-person interaction and increasing on-demand technology from chats and texts to social media updates and news feeds may be eroding employee engagement.

HR and management also play a large factor, making the roles of HR and management in employee engagement crucial.

Organizational Drivers

Some of the research identifies organization-wide drivers of employee engagement.

Quantum Workplace (the research firm behind the "Best Places to Work" programs in more than 47 metro areas) has identified six drivers of employee engagement that have the greatest impact:

1. The leaders of their organization are committed to making it a great place to work.
2. Trust in the leaders of the organization to set the right course.
3. Belief that the organization will be successful in the future.
4. Understanding of how I fit into the organization's future plans.
5. The leaders of the organization value people as their most important resource.
6. The organization makes investments to make employees more successful.

Get Help With Employee Engagement

Businesses that are struggling with employee engagement may want to check out this guide to employee engagement and retention.

Contact us today to learn more about how we are already helping countless businesses with employee engagement.