Measuring Employee Engagement

In an organisation, HR strategies have a profound impact on employee engagement. Lack of employee engagement is a global problem that is not confined to any country, industry, or sector (Attridge 2009). As discussed in previous posts, there is no universally agreed definition for employee engagement. Byrne (2014) describe a model for employee engagement that encompasses the staff environment, the work environment and the person (self), meaning engagement is a collective effect of these areas. They affect engagement both individually and in combination. Employee engagement is measurable at the employee and organisational level (Bakker & Albrecht, 2018, Othman et al., 2018, Saks, 2006), and can be measured by employee engagement surveys, one-on-one interviews, focus group interviews and exit interviews.

For employees to engage positively, basic needs must be satisfied: autonomy, competence, and confidence in action (Deci & Ryan 2004).  Evidence shows that job satisfaction is a precursor to employee engagement, not the other way around (Shuck et al. 2021). (Breaugh 2020) conducted a large scale study in 30 countries, using the 2015 wave of the European Working Conditions Survey engagement and concluded that basic need satisfaction and engagement were positively related while stress and engagement are negatively related irrespective of the sector– but less for those with strong interpersonal relationships at work.

There are many tools available to measure job engagement, as listed below (Turner 2019). The choice of the most effective scale will vary based on the decision maker's preference (Khodakarami et al. 2018).  However, before measuring the level of engagement, organisations need to have engagement goals and benchmark them against them, such as Turnover Rate and Employee Net Provider Score (eNPS).

Tools

• Utrecht Work Engagement Scale
• Job Engagement Scale
• Saks Engagement Scale
• Gallup Workplace Audit
• Gallup Q12 Survey
• ISA Engagement Scale
• Aon Hewitt Engagement Model
• Mercer-Sirota B Factor Model
• Oldenburg Burnout Inventory
• The Engagement Audit
• Employee Pulse Surveys
• Work-Related Bask Psychological Need Satisfaction Scale
• The Energy Compass
• Bespoke Employee Attitude Survey
• Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire
• Fletcher, Major, and Davis 4-item team Climate Scale
• Multi-dimensional Model of Psychological Well-being (Ryff 1989)
• Schwarz outcome scale 10 (Shuck et al 2017)
• Maslach Burnout Inventory
• Bespoke Team Engagement Survey
• Health and Well-being Survey
• Organizational Climate Survey
• Organisational Culture Assessment Instrument
• Organisational Commitment Questionnaire
• 3-Type Organisational Commitment Scale
• Leadership Behaviour Questionnaire
• Internal Leadership 'Audit'
• Job Engagement Organization and Employee-Organization relationship survey
• Human Capital Management Measures
• Bespoke Strategic Employee Attitude Surveys 

 

The Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) (Schaufeli & Bakker 2003) has 17 items to measure work engagement; vigour, dedication and absorption (Table 1)  –there is a shorter version with 9-item questionnaires. The UWES tool has been extensively studied (Kulikowski 2017) and validated in many countries and settings (Schaufeli et al. 2006; Fong & Ng 2012), in which some studies have shown that engagement is negatively associated with perceived stress and burnout, while it was positive with age. 

Table 1. The Utrecht work engagement scale and Job Engagement Scale.

• The Utrecht Work Engagement scale (Schaufeli & Bakker 2003)

  Job Engagement Scale (JES) (Rich et al. 2010)

  At my work, I feel that I am bursting with energy (Vigor) I find the work that I do full of meaning and purpose (Dedication) Time flies when I'm working (absorption) At my job, I feel strong and vigorous (Vigor) I am enthusiastic about my job (Dedication) When I am working, I forget everything else around me (absorption) My job inspires me (Dedication) When I get up in the morning, I feel like going to work (Vigor)  I feel happy when I am working intensely (absorption)  I am proud on the work that I do (Dedication) I am immersed in my work (absorption)  I can continue working for very long periods at a time (Vigor) To me, my job is challenging (Dedication) I get carried away when I'm working (absorption)  At my job, I am very resilient, mentally (Vigor) It is difficult to detach myself from my job (absorption) At my work, I always persevere, even when things do not go well (Vigor)

  Physical engagement I work with intensity on my job. I exert my full effort to my job. I devote a lot of energy to my job. I try my hardest to perform well on my job. I strive as hard as I can to complete my job. I exert a lot of energy on my job. Emotional engagement I am enthusiastic about my job. I feel energetic about my job. I am interested in my job. I am proud of my job. I feel positive about my job. I am excited about my job. Cognitive engagement At work, my mind is focused on my job. At work, I pay a lot of attention to my job. At work, I concentrate on my job. At work, I focus a great deal of attention on my job. At work, I am absorbed in my job. At work, I devote a lot of attention to my job

  Job Engagement Scale (JES) (Rich et al. 2010) has 18 items to assess under three factors; physical, affective, cognitive engagement (Table 1). A study conducted by (Jayanthi et al. 2020)  in the IT sector found the following employee factors influence engagement in the workplace; Physical Work Engagement - Age; Emotional work engagement - gender, family type, title, income, and experience; Cognitive Work Engagement - Gender, Title, and Income. These two tools (UWES, JES) are correlated but not interchangeable (Byrne et al. 2016).

  The results of these engagement measurements need to be carefully evaluated and generalised because not all engaged employees may be committed to the organisation (Jayanthi et al. 2020) ;engaged and committed, engaged but not committed,  neither engaged not committed. There are many drivers of employee engagement, and these drives influence work engagement and job satisfaction. Merely changing the management practice sometimes can increase job satisfaction (Harter et al. 2002). For example, an engaging leadership style has a beneficial effect on individual and team performance. To measure engagement leadership Schaufeli (2021) developed a 12-item questionnaire based Leadership Engagement Scale. The results of this tool can be used to make improvements to the leadership styles.

  To improve engagement, it is necessary to review performance indicators regularly to develop seriousness that will lead to a performance-oriented work culture (Upadhyay & Palo 2013). Moreover, organisations can help employees develop skills; knowledge by creating an environment that enables them to use this new knowledge and skills in their professional role to perform better (Turner, 2019).

  My personal experience was that the government organizations where I worked never conducted employee engagement surveys; however, my current workplace, an intergovernmental organisation, recently conducted an employee engagement survey involving all staff worldwide and based on its results some positive actions are being taken to improve engagement.   

  In conclusion, although there are several tools for measuring employee engagement, all tools perform well in identifying if the employees are engaged or not.

   References:

  Attridge, M., 2009. Measuring and managing employee work engagement: A review of the research and business literature. Journal of Workplace Behavioral Health, 24(4), pp.383-398
  
  Breaugh, J., 2021. Too Stressed To Be Engaged? The Role of Basic Needs Satisfaction in Understanding Work Stress and Public Sector Engagement. Public Personnel Management, 50(1), pp.84-108.
  
   Attridge, M 2009, 'Measuring and Managing Employee Work Engagement: A Review of the Research and Business Literature', Journal of Workplace Behavioral Health, vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 383-98.
  
  Breaugh, J 2020, 'Too Stressed To Be Engaged? The Role of Basic Needs Satisfaction in Understanding Work Stress and Public Sector Engagement', Public Personnel Management, vol. 50, no. 1, pp. 84-108.
  
  Byrne, ZS, Peters, JM & Weston, JW 2016, 'The Struggle With Employee Engagement: Measures and Construct Clarification Using Five Samples', Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 101, no. 9, pp. 1201-27.
  
  Deci, EL & Ryan, RM 2004, Handbook of self-determination research, University Rochester Press.
  
  Harter, JK, Schmidt, FL & Hayes, TL 2002, 'Business-unit-level relationship between employee satisfaction, employee engagement, and business outcomes: A meta-analysis', Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 87, no. 2, pp. 268-79.
  
  Jayanthi, D, Kowsalya, N & Manju, S 2020, 'Perception of jes (Job engagement scale) among It/Ites employees: A study', Int. J. Sci. Technol. Res, vol. 9, pp. 4256-61.
  
  Khodakarami, N, Dirani, K & Rezaei, F 2018, 'Employee engagement: finding a generally accepted measurement scale', Industrial and Commercial Training, vol. 50, no. 6, pp. 305-11.
  
  Rich, BL, Lepine, JA & Crawford, ER 2010, 'Job engagement: Antecedents and effects on job performance', Academy of management journal, vol. 53, no. 3, pp. 617-35.
  
  Schaufeli, W 2021, 'Engaging Leadership: How to Promote Work Engagement?', Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 12, p. 754556.
  
  Schaufeli, WB & Bakker, A 2003, 'Utrecht work engagement scale', Occupational Health Psychology Unit Utrecht University, vol. 1.
  
  Shuck, B, Kim, W & Chai, DS 2021, 'The Chicken and Egg Conundrum: Job Satisfaction or Employee Engagement and Implications for Human Resources', New Horizons in Adult Education and Human Resource Development, vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 4-24.
  
  Turner, P 2019, Employee engagement in contemporary organizations: Maintaining high productivity and sustained competitiveness, Springer.
  
  Upadhyay, AYA & Palo, S 2013, 'Engaging employees through balanced scorecard implementation', Strategic HR Review.