The Importance of Engagement: Why You Should Be Concerned

“The best companies now know, without a doubt, where productivity—real and limitless productivity—comes from. It comes from challenged, empowered, excited, rewarded teams of people. It comes from engaging every single mind in the organisation, making everyone part of the action, and allowing everyone to have a voice—a role—in the success of the enterprise. Doing so raises productivity not incrementally, but by multiples.”

Jack Welch, Former Chairman and CEO of General Electric

Successful companies recognise that employee engagement is a vital source of competitive advantage. As a result, business leaders are looking for HR functions to not only understand the concept of employee engagement but to identify and take the necessary steps to improve engagement in their business. As companies strive to win the war for talent and need to over-perform in the war for business, employee engagement is a topic that many CEOs and HR professionals are citing as one of the top business issues for the future.

At Hewitt, we recognise the importance of engagement. Over the last 30 years, we have been at the forefront of pioneering research into employee engagement. Our research is based on data from millions of employees who have completed the Hewitt Engagement Survey representing the world’s leading companies. Hewitt consultants have been working with client organisations to analyse employee survey data and convert it into strategic perspectives and practical action steps that have significant bottom-line impact.

The Questions Hewitt Helps You Answer
Over the last decade our consultants have been helping companies across the world establish a clear relationship between employee engagement levels and business metrics and improvement. We help to address important questions such as:

• What do employee engagement scores tell us about actual retention, commitment and accountability?
• How do you compare with leading organisations?
• How does this affect business?
• How can employee engagement help drive up productivity and profits?
• How can you ensure that HR policies and programmes result in improved engagement?
• How can you attract and retain talent without just increasing the pay bill?
• What is the ‘cost’ of poor engagement levels and what can you do to avoid these slipping?

Hewitt’s Leading Research
In partnership with top academic institutions and experts, Hewitt conducts and publishes leading-edge research into engagement. For example, our ‘Best Employer Best Results’ studies, which are conducted across the world, have consistently demonstrated that employers with high engagement implement unique HR practices and deliver superior financial performance. Hewitt has undertaken comprehensive research linking engagement and key performance measures such as total shareholder return (TSR), profitability, customer satisfaction and employee retention.

In addition to leading-edge research, Hewitt also maintains an engagement database comprised of more than 2,000 companies in 44 markets, representing 7.3 million employees.

Above all, we are focused on helping HR functions deliver tangible outcomes. The purpose of our research, surveys and engagement data is to help clients across the globe take the action that will improve engagement and deliver enhanced business performance. Thanks to our unique methodology and over 60 years’ experience of people management, we help companies develop employment propositions, people strategies and HR practices that will truly deliver improvements to employee engagement.

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