There is a lot of talk about employee engagement these days. It was a term coined and became popular in management theory in the 1990s. With business growth being the number one objective for most businesses in 2019, engaged employees are the number one asset driving that. Employee wellbeing and engagement go hand in hand. When people are well, they do well and excel in whatever they focus on.

Employee engagement is “the level of an employee’s psychological investment in their organisation .” The ‘Trends in Global Employee Engagement Study’ measures employee engagement with a “Say, Stay, Strive” model. Employees are asked if they:

• Say positive things about their organisation

• Plan to Stay there for a long time

• Are motivated to Strive to give their best to help the company succeed

Different studies place employee engagement anywhere from 15 (Gallup Report Global average) to 60 per cent (Aon, 2018, Trends In Global Employee Engagement, Average in Europe).

An “engaged employee” is fully enthusiastic about and absorbed by their work and, as a result, takes positive action to further their organisation’s interests.

Broadly speaking, engagement-wise, employees fit into three categories:

Engaged: Employees who work with passion and feel connected to their company. They are drivers of innovation and growth.

Not engaged: Employees are not present—they are working to the clock and without energy or enthusiasm. They may be doing the bare minimum or a little more, but they are not working at capacity.

Disengaged: Employees who are unhappy at work use this to undermine the work of their engaged colleagues, damaging morale, productivity, and reputation.

Engagement has various components:

• Employee’s personal resources – an employee’s mindset is key to engagement. How they see themselves and want to be in the world greatly impacts how they engage everywhere they go. The ultimate resource is a person’s resourcefulness; employees with high personal resourcefulness will bring that to work.

• Their perception of the importance of their work: This factor is highly significant in terms of employee loyalty and customer service.

Other factors that influence engagement include:

• Clarity regarding job expectations and good general communications – For optimal engagement, expectations should be clear, and employees should be given what they need to do their job and be clear on what is happening generally

• Career progress / promotional opportunities – can be very motivating

• Regular feedback and discussion with higher-ups – People like to know where they are going and what is and isn’t working

• Relationships at work – A positive relationship with their boss is the biggest factor here. Relationships with other team members matter, too. If people have a best friend at work, they are much more likely to be engaged

• Inspirational leadership and organisational values are highly motivating when they are truly lived

• A good Corporate social responsibility program where employees volunteer at or through work also boosts engagement.

A good work-life balance and integration at the individual level is interestingly shown as a predictor for a highly engaged workforce. When people can balance work, family and personal matters, they are more likely to engage wholeheartedly and freely. Programmes that help employees achieve this balance in practical terms (i.e. parenting programmes and related support and employee wellbeing programmes that target what affects engagement) are thus gaining traction and proving effective in productivity and profits. When people are given help, they are more likely to be dedicated and go the extra mile.

Engagement happens when people are focused by their minds and connected by their hearts to what they are doing.