Employee engagement

Prepared by Agency Human Resource Services

Department of Human Resource Management

Commonwealth of VirginiaJune 2010

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Employee engagementwhat is it?

The extent to which employees are emotionally and rationally involved, motivated by, and committed to their work and organization. High engagement levels positively affect

performance, productivity, and retention. Involvement

Motivation

Commitment PERFORMANCE

PRODUCTIVITY

RETENTION

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EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENTWHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

• According to business research, employee engagement has been correlated with retention, customer service, performance, productivity, and financial performance.Life Insurance Industry Studies (Watson Wyatt)

• Positive correlations with Morale, Retention, and Financial Performance

• High commitment organizations out-performed low commitment organizations by 47% (2000 study) and 200% (2002 study).

Hay Group• Increased productivity in high engagement organizations (up to 43% more productive).

Gallup• Engaged organizations have 2.6x earnings-per-share growth rate.

• Only 29% are engaged in their jobs; 54% are not engaged.

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employee_engagement; http://www.gallup.com/consulting/52/Employee-Engagement.aspx

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• How does an organization know how engaged employees are? Key measures of engagement include:– Engagement survey scores – some

organizations “purchase” survey tools from professional, consulting organizations (e.g., Gallup and Corporate Leadership Council) and others develop their own tools. The keys to effective engagement surveys are to keep the survey relatively short and meaningful, to plan to actually do something with the results, and to re-measure these meaningful questions regularly.

– Retention/Turnover – organizations with high engagement often have high retention/low turnover.

– Employee productivity measures– Financial measures

What does employee engagement look like?

Tools

Sample Engagement Survey Questions

Example of Retention Focus Groups

Sample Exit Interview Questions

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• MGM Grand Article: http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/jan2009/ca20090116_444132.htm

• Gallup Article – Campbell Soup: http://gmj.gallup.com/content/126278/Campbell-Soup.aspx?utm_source=email&utm_medium=10MAR-B&utm_content=morelink&utm_campaign=newsletter#1

• Gallup Article: http://gmj.gallup.com/content/102496/where-employee-engagement-happens.aspx

Additional information and real-world examples