---
title: "Engagement – What is engagement and why should employers care?"
description: "You’d like to think the employees in your organization are rule followers. Of course a few willfully violate policy, a few more occasionally slip up by accident, but most abide by the manual and keep out of trouble. At least they think they’re following the rules. It’s common for employers to implement a hard and fast rule that all employment references be issued from the HR department. Also, HR is likely to limit the information they release to job title, dates of employment, and ending salary. Going beyond such a neutral reference makes many employers nervous that they could be sued for defamation if a poor job reference keeps an applicant from getting a job."
url: https://www.dashrconsulting.com/engagement-what-is-engagement-and-why-should-employers-care/
date: 2013-10-14
modified: 2013-10-14
author: "Dr. Di Ann Sanchez"
image: https://www.dashrconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/Employeer_engagement.jpg
categories: ["Human Resources", "Talent Management", "Training"]
type: post
lang: en
---

# Engagement – What is engagement and why should employers care?

Employee Engagement has been defined as,

> “A heightened emotional and intellectual connection that an employee has for his/her job, organization, manager, or coworkers that, in turn, influences him/her to apply additional discretionary effort to his/her work.” —The Conference Board.

![Employeer Engagement](https://www.dashrconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/Employeer_engagement.jpg)

Unfortunately, many employees are not engaged at work and that effects company’s productivity and profitability.

**Below are the recent engagement findings:**

- 50% would like to leave their jobs, including 25% of best performers. (Right Management)
- 74% of departed employees cited a lack of employer engagement as their principal reason for leaving. (Harvard Business Review)
- Disengaged employees are 24% less likely to quit than engaged employees. (Conference Board)

**There are many reasons and events that may result in low engagement such as:**

- No, or low, pay increase
- Conflict with a coworker
- Unexpectedly low performance rating
- Being passed over for promotion
- Hiring manager replaced by new manager they don’t like
- Being asked to do something unethical
- Realizing they are underpaid compared to others in the same job
- Being pressured to make unreasonable family/personal sacrifice
- Being asked to perform a menial duty
- Incident of sexual harassment or racial discrimination
- Close colleague quits or is terminated

** Why Should Employers Care about Engagement?**

The most-engaged companies had five times higher total shareholder return over 5 years than the least-engaged companies, according to a Kenexa survey. Furthermore, a recent Gallup Organization poll showed that employers with high engagement ratings experience:

- 86% higher customer/client ratings
- 70% less turnover
- 70% higher productivity
- 44% higher profitability
- 78% better safety records

Employee engagement definitely hits your organizations bottom-line! Train your organization and managers in employee engagement. Ask employees either in a survey or focus groups how to improve the engagement of employees. Be prepared to put action plans in place to address workplace issues. Continually monitor the action plan results and report the results to your employees at least quarterly.

**Reference: You Can Sell Engagement to Top Management , BLR July 9, 2013**