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Engaging for success: Enhancing performance through employee engagement
support each other. They are likely to perceive the deal they get from their employer
as positive, and they get lower levels of stress and a better work life balance.” 78
39 CIPD found that those who were absorbed in their work (cognitively engaged) were
almost three times as likely to have six key positive emotions at work (enthusiasm,
cheerfulness, optimism, contentment, to feel calm and relaxed) as negative ones
(feeling miserable, worried, depressed, gloomy, tense or uneasy). And those who
were physically engaged (committed to completing work tasks) were more than
ten times likelier to feel those positive emotions than the negative ones. 79
40 As CIPD also say in their HR Directors’ Guide to Employee Engagement, “engaged
employees will have a greater sense of well-being than those who are less engaged.
They are more likely to be satisfied with their work, less likely to be sick and less likely
to leave the organisation.”
41 Towers Perrin in their 2008 Global Workforce Study of employee views 80 found that
the top driver of engagement was senior management demonstrating a sincere
interest in employee well-being.
42 Angela Bedford of Standard Life was just one HR professional to point out to us the
empowering effect on the individual employee of feeling “they are doing what they
do best at work.” 81
43 David Coats of the Work Foundation emphasised to us that “work is good for you –
but good work is even better. Employers underestimate at their peril the impact on
productivity and performance of stress and physical problems such as muscularskeletal
damage, which are directly attributable to the experience of the individual
employee in the workplace.” Conversely, taking employees’ well-being seriously will
have benefits for both the organisation and employees. British Gas achieved a 12
per cent reduction in staff absence and a 25 per cent reduction in staff turnover,
and increased its employee engagement and commitment scores after
implementing a wide range of activities aimed at addressing general well-being at
work. These included involving family members in fun activities around the
workplace such as Christmas parties and summer barbeques, supporting employees
to undertake voluntary work for charities, and twice-yearly health events for all
staff. 82
44 The Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health point to the loss of productivity for those
who are ill but still in work; they estimate the cost due to mental ill-health alone is
£15 billion a year. A study by Soane (2008) found that emotional engagement was
78
Provided to the MacLeod Review by Jonathan Austin
79
CIPD Reflections on Employee Engagement – White Paper (2006)
80
Towers Perrin Global Workforce Study (2007-2008)
81
Response to MacLeod Review call for evidence, via email
82
Health Work Wellbeing (2007). Organisational Case Studies – British Gas Business [Online]. Available:
http://www.workingforhealth.gov.uk/Case-Studies/Organisations/Organisation-detail.aspxCaseStudyID=33
[accessed 30 June 2009]
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