What Drives Employee Engagement?

Much has been written about what drives employee engagement and that having it is close to nirvana, but what exactly is it. Because so many of the major research firms have looked at what drives employee engagement it takes some doing to get a common definition.

In 2006, The Conference Board produced Employee Engagement, a Review of Current Research and Its Implications. The report cites evidence from twelve different research studies on employee engagement conducted by firms like Gallup, Watson Wyatt, Towers Perrin and others. Each firm defined employee engagement somewhat differently so, in all, a combined 26 characteristics were identified.

The Conference Board took these different studies, compared all of their findings, created a distilled definition and identified key themes and eight key characteristics which drive employee engagement that at least four of the firms had in common.

Common Characteristics Driving Employee Engagement

Four of the studies had these eight characteristics in common:

1. Trust and integrity: How well managers communicate and "walk the talk".
2. Nature of the job: Is the employee's job mentally stimulating day-to-day?.
3. Line of sight between employee performance and company performance: Does the employee understand how his or her work contributes to the company's performance?
4. Career growth opportunities: Are their future opportunities for the employee's personal career growth?
5. Pride about the company: How much self-esteem does the employee feel by being associated with the company.
6. Co-workers/team members: People surrounding the employee at work significantly influence the employee's level of engagement.
7. Employee development:Is the company making an effort to develop the employee's skills.
8. Relationship with the manager: Does the employee value his or her relationship with his or her manager?

All the studies agreed that the most significant driver of employee engagement is the employee's immediate suprvisor. Other factors include he age of the employee. Older employees, for example would rather have positive recognition than career growth opportunities; with younger employees the result is just the opposite.

Motivate Employees Through the Selection Process