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Drivers of Employee Engagement

What is important  to one group for full engagement may not be important to another group.  A one size fits all approach does not work.  Groups are not just departments and positions in departments, but also demographics such as age and gender. The specific drivers for high potentials, a job with chronic turnover or high productivity may all  require different engagement strategies to be effective.

Gallup  states that engagement is based on:

1. The clarity of expectations for employees and the tools needed to perform their jobs

2. A feeling of contribution to the organization

3. A sense of belonging to something bigger than the self

4. A sense  that they have opportunities to discuss career progress and growth

A review of the literature suggests  that  engagement is influenced by:

1. Feedback to employees

2. Job design and employees’ fit with their organization

3. The support and resources provided by the organizations

4. Working conditions that minimize demanding and difficult situations

5. Leadership style

Another literature review suggests that organizations should design jobs that convey the value and meaning of employee work and provide opportunities to use a variety of skills and accomplish a variety of work tasks.  Feedback, autonomy and leadership may not be as important to engagement in that review.

We can see from the literature the variety of factors that influence engagement with different groups.  Addressing factors that are not pertinent to an organization or individual will be effort wasted when it comes to increasing employee engagement.