Staff Engagement report

Staff engagement is high on the agenda for many organisations thanks to our ever-changing world of work.

An engaged workforce is typically one in which employees understand and are committed to an organisation’s values and objectives and are passionately motivated to not only offer their very best at work but to go above and beyond to help achieve its goals.

Staff engagement is high on the agenda of many organisations because of the recognised value of maximising your existing human capital investment. Various studies have shown than an engaged workforce is more likely to be retained, will be more productive and innovative, and is willing to go the extra mile to put in discretionary effort. Together, this impacts positively on an organisation’s bottom line.

But an engaged workforce doesn’t just happen. It’s a two-way process in which an organisation needs to work hard to engage its staff and, crucially, where employees themselves decide how engaged they will be in return. It’s a symbiotic relationship where both the employer and employee support each other; if one side fails to back the other, engagement levels deteriorate rapidly.

In this report we look at how to engage staff at work. We firstly examine why engagement is important to employers, then share practical staff engagement tools and strategies, covering both intrinsic and extrinsic factors, that you can take to improve your organisation’s employee engagement levels.

Our findings are supported by a survey of almost 1,200 employers and employees. As a results-orientated company, we hope the strategies we share will help you achieve a lasting and positive impact in your world of work.

Intrinsic versus extrinsic staff engagement factors

Increasing your employee engagement levels may seem like a daunting task, but by breaking it down into manageable segments you can start to positively impact engagement and increase the return from your human capital investment.

The advice we present in our report will get you started and is broken into two sections: intrinsic factors and extrinsic factors.

Intrinsic factors come from within, such as having a purpose, a sense of achievement, a feeling of being valued, a feeling that emotions are respected, a sense of being treated fairly, and satisfaction from making a difference. While an organisation does not have total control of these factors, you can be an influence by ensuring employees have the knowledge, understanding and relationships that will allow them to switch on and engage.

Extrinsic factors come from outside the employee and are external influences, such as the financial rewards received, the environment they work in, being given an efficient induction and onboarding process, recognition and flexibility. You have a greater influence over such factors.

Since effective staff workplace engagement involves both, we cover them separately in our report