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Engaging for success: Enhancing performance through employee engagement
9 It is of course not that simple. There is no one agreed definition of employee
engagement – during the course of this review we have come across more than 50
definitions; three of them are quoted below.
“Engagement is about creating opportunities for employees to connect with their
colleagues, managers and wider organisation. It is also about creating an
environment where employees are motivated to want to connect with their work
and really care about doing a good job…It is a concept that places flexibility,
change and continuous improvement at the heart of what it means to be an
employee and an employer in a twenty-first century workplace.” (Professor Katie
Truss 1 )
“A positive attitude held by the employee towards the organisation and its values.
An engaged employee is aware of the business context, and works with
colleagues to improve performance within the job for the benefit of the
organisation. The organisation must work to develop and nurture engagement,
which requires a two-way relationship between employee and employer.”
(Institute of Employment Studies 2 )
“A set of positive attitudes and behaviours enabling high job performance of a
kind which are in tune with the organisation’s mission.” (Professor John Storey 3 )
10 Early on in the review, when we spoke to David Guest, Professor of Organisational
Psychology and Human Resource Management at Kings College London, he pointed
out that much of the discussion of engagement tends to get muddled as to whether
it is an attitude, a behaviour or an outcome or, indeed, all three. He went on to
suggest that “… the concept of employee engagement needs to be more clearly
defined […] or it needs to be abandoned”. 4 We have decided, however, that there is
too much momentum and indeed excellent work being done under the banner of
employee engagement to abandon the term.
Not everyone who practices engagement uses the term: Liz Sands, Buyouts
Director at 3i Private Equity, told us 3i probably doesn’t use the term
‘employee engagement’ at Board level but “it is fundamental to driving
improved performance in the business and the organisation as a whole is signed
up to it for that reason”.
1
2
3
4
Gatenby, M., Rees, C., Soane, E. and Truss, C (2009) Employee engagement in context. London: Chartered
Institute of Personnel and Development
Robinson, D., Perryman S., & Hayday, S. (2004). The drivers of employee engagement. IES Report 408
John Storey, Patrick M Wright, David Ulrich eds. (2008). The Routledge Companion to Strategic Human
Resource Management.
David Guest, ‘Review of Employee Engagement: Notes for a Discussion, December 2008’ unpublished paper
prepared specifically for the MacLeod Review
8