[Financial Times] What Does Employee ‘Engagement’ Really Mean?

June 22, 2022

The Financial Times recently published insight featuring Constance Hadley, Lecturer of Management & Organizations, on how to effectively measure employee engagement and create a workplace culture that fosters growth for engagement.

A recent report from Gallup surveyed 230,000 workers around the world and found that only 21 percent of the workers are engaged in their work. People’s understanding and use of the term “engagement” in the workplace can be hazy, according to Constance. In her opinion, it usually refers to a combination of enthusiasm, a sense of belonging, and the satisfaction of a fulfilling life’s work.

Constance suggests using the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale, developed by organizational psychologists Wilmar Schaufeli and Arnold Bakker, as an effective tool for measuring a person’s physical, emotional, and cognitive relationship to his or her job. While the UWES measures people’s attitudes, Gallup’s Q12 — developed by Jim Harter, Chief scientist at Gallup and his team — measures engagement in a more actionable way, helping guide employers to create the type of culture that fosters engagement. Constance elaborates on this strategy, stating ,

“Anecdotally, we’re seeing that it’s hard for people to feel emotional engagement with the work if they don’t feel connected to the people at work.”