Employee Engagement

The study



IES research into employee engagement was promoted by the interest and involvement of several IES Research Networks Member companies. It proved more complicated than first envisaged, due to the lack of existing research in the area. IES explored the concept of engagement with member and client organisations, before embarking on original research into measuring engagement and establishing its main drivers.



The database used for the research comprises attitude survey data from 14 organisations in the NHS (10,024 completed questionnaires). The full range of employee groups and job roles were represented – managerial, professional, technical and support (manual and administrative).



The full report also contains literature reviews on commitment and organisational citizenship behaviour, and a Royal Bank of Scotland case study.



The study was funded and supported by IES’ motivation, wellbeing and retention Research Network.

Amplify’d from www.employment-studies.co.uk

Robinson D, Perryman S, Hayday S Report 408, Institute for Employment Studies, April 2004

Engagement is big in the HR consultancy market, yet there is a dearth of academic research in this area. IES research suggests that engagement is more than a passing fad – it brings clear business benefits. Engagement is seen, by the UK company that is furthest advanced in using it, as bringing real competitive advantage. However, raising engagement levels, and maintaining them, takes time, effort, commitment and investment – it is not for the half-hearted.

What is engagement?

The first step in our research was to investigate what HR professionals understood or meant when they used the term ‘engagement’. A clear view of the behaviours demonstrated by the engaged employee emerged:

context and the ‘bigger picture’ respectful of, and helpful to, colleagues willingness to ‘go the extra mile’ keeping up to date with developments in the field.

belief in the organisation desire to work to make things better understanding of business context and the ‘bigger picture’ respectful of, and helpful to, colleagues willingness to ‘go the extra mile’ keeping up to date with developments in the field.

Engagement has clear overlaps with the more exhaustively researched concepts of commitment and organisational citizenship behaviour, but there are also differences. In particular, engagement is two-way: organisations must work to engage the employee, who in turn has a choice about the level of engagement to offer the employer.

IES defines engagement as: ‘a positive attitude held by the employee towards the organisation and its values. An engaged employee is aware of business context, and works with colleagues to improve performance within the job for the benefit of the organisation. The organisation must work to develop and nurture engagement, which requires a two-way relationship between employer and employee.’

Measuring engagement

Our analysis used data from IES’ 2003 attitude survey of over 10,000 employees in 14 organisations in the NHS. Twelve attitude statements representing engagement were tested; all were found to ‘sit together’ reliably, to comprise a single indicator of engagement. Although tested within the NHS, the statements are not NHS-specific; they can be transferred to other organisations and sectors. If attitude survey space is at a premium, and organisations feel unable to include 12 statements, an engagement subset of five statements can be used instead. This subset can be safely used, as it represents the essence of engagement and has been tested for reliability. Positive responses to the engagement statements indicate:

a positive attitude towards, and pride in, the organisation

belief in the organisation’s products/services

a perception that the organisation enables the employee to perform well

a willingness to behave altruistically and be a good team player

an understanding of the bigger picture and a willingness to go beyond the requirements of the job.

Engagement challenges

Further in-depth analysis of our NHS case study data revealed that engagement levels can vary, in association with a variety of personal and job characteristics and with experiences at work. Some key findings were:

What drives engagement?

Research shows that committed employees perform better. If we accept that engagement, as many believe, is ‘one step up’ from commitment, it is clearly in the organisation’s interests to understand the drivers of engagement. Analysis of the NHS case study data indicates that opinions about, and experiences of, many aspects of working life are strongly correlated with engagement levels. However, the strongest driver of all is a sense of feeling valued and involved. This has several key components:

rvey, 2003

Source: IES Survey, 2003

The IES engagement model illustrates the strong link between feeling valued and involved and engagement. In addition to the model, IES offers a diagnostic tool (above), which can be used to derive organisation-specific drivers from attitude survey data. Our findings suggest that many of the drivers of engagement will be common to all organisations, regardless of sector; however, some variability is likely, and the relative strength of each driver is also likely to be contingent upon the organisation being studied. Read more at www.employment-studies.co.uk

 

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