EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

Employee Engagement

Employee Engagement

With change and restructuring inevitable in many organizations, one of the biggest challenges currently facing companies is employee engagement. As well as the ongoing focus on recruiting new talent, a further challenge lies in ensuring existing staff are focused, engaged and thus retained. Smart organizations understand that an engaged workforce results in better business performance, so many are placing greater emphasis on measuring employee engagement and implementing strategies to keep staff happy.

According to the findings of a recent ORC International (2008) report Putting It in Perspective, overall UK worker satisfaction is fairly stable at 68 percent. However, analysis of these results shows that in many areas, public sector workers trail behind their private sector counterparts. There are also distinct variations between different employment sectors. The findings are based on data from a benchmarking database, which contain information from over 300 employee surveys and represent the views and opinions of over 1.5 million employees in the UK. (ORC International, 2008, 12)

Key Emerging Factors

Organizational pride is a key aspect of employee engagement. It has remained steady in the UK over the last five years and currently measures 67 percent. However, results show that of all UK workers, employees in Local Government and Central Government are the least proud of where they work, falling short of the UK norm by 7 and 8 percentage points respectively. Conversely, the private and not-for-profit sectors excel, with employees rating high satisfaction and organizational pride scores of 70 percent and 77 percent respectively. It appears that working for big brands and worthy causes engenders more pride than the delivery of public services.

Similarly, employee loyalty - another important aspect of engagement - is shown to be questionable in the public sector. In the Housing Sector and Central Government, fewer workers than in any other sector intend to be with their organization in twelve months. Those in the Housing Sector demonstrate the least loyalty of any industry at 54 percent, 13 percentage points lower than the average score.

The poor performance of the public sector can be attributed to a variety of factors: relative to the private sector there are poor perceptions of training, management and employee benefits. It could also be linked to the large amount of change the sector is currently facing; change management has often been flagged as a key aspect impacting employee engagement. The report shows that managers may not prioritize employee management during hectic times of change - employees involved in change in the UK in 2007 were less likely than others to feel that their achievements at work were recognized or acknowledged by managers. A further worry is that it seems UK organizations are not getting better at managing change - the percentage of employees who feel that their organization manages change effectively has fallen by 4 percent since 2000. (Bhatnagar, 2007, 55)

Company Background

Marriott International Inc., is a leading lodging company with nearly 2,900 lodging properties in the United States and 68 countries around the ...