Employee engagement has been top of mind for many HR leaders as significant challenges with employee satisfaction and retention have come to light in recent years. According to McLean & Company, “Engaged employees feel energized, passionate, and dedicated. They are highly involved with their work and the organization.” As such, companies with a high number of engaged employees typically retain their talent at a higher rate than those with lower levels of employee engagement and satisfaction.

The future of work continues to trend toward increasingly flexible hybrid and virtual offerings, spurred on by COVID-19 and bringing with it a renewed scrutiny into the way organizations engage and interact with their colleagues. With work-life balance, comprehensive benefits, and corporate culture ranking higher on employees’ list of concerns, workers are no longer willing to remain engaged with companies whose lived values, company cultures, and provided benefits do not meet expectations.

“Our members frequently ask us how the pandemic has impacted engagement so they can better understand the trends in their own organizations,” says Leigh Caiger, Practice Lead of Advisory Services at McLean & Company. “The data and benchmarks in this report provide the information HR leaders need to evaluate, understand, and manage their engagement proactively in our new hybrid reality.”

To keep employees engaged and both attract and retain talent, HR leaders must be prepared to acknowledge the workforce’s shifting priorities and change the way they think about employee engagement, McLean & Company shares. The firm’s new Employee Engagement Trends Report highlights three key engagement driver categories that emerged from the three years of data collected. McLean & Company’s research findings emphasize what organizations must consider when evaluating and attempting to improve employee engagement over the coming months:

• Organizational Drivers – Areas that influence an employee’s satisfaction and commitment to their organization, such as Culture, Customer Focus, Company Potential, Department Relationships, and Senior Management Relationships. Key takeaways from the data collected by McLean & Company underscore that remote and hybrid work did not impact views on culture, although onsite employees were 9.0% more likely to agree that their company’s departments work well together to get things done. While satisfaction with senior management relationships increased by almost 8% from 2019 to 2021, this improvement was mainly seen in onsite workers. Employees in a remote or hybrid working environment reported relatively little change in their perceptions of senior management relationships. Though organizations of all sizes saw an increase in senior manager relationship scores, large organizations saw the biggest jump between 2019 to 2021.
  
  
• Job Drivers – Areas that influence an employee’s happiness and commitment with their day-to-day role, including Employee Empowerment, Learning and Development, Rewards and Recognition, Co-Worker Relationships, and Manager Relationships. Key takeaways emphasize that job driver scores increased in 2020 and plateaued in 2021, with increases of 4.4% in Employee Empowerment, 6.0% in Learning and Development, 7.0% in Rewards and Recognition, 2.2% in Co-Worker Relationships, and 6.6% in Manager Relationships from 2019 to 2021. Overall, the research found that employees are much less satisfied with Learning and Development and Rewards and Recognition compared to other job drivers. The impact of work style on relationships, such as remote or hybrid versus onsite, cannot be overlooked as it affects other job drivers, including Empowerment and Learning and Development. Workers hired before the shift to remote work in 2020 typically report a stronger sense of feeling as though they have a good friend within the organization compared to those hired after work-from-home began in early 2020. This suggests newly hired remote and hybrid employees may be struggling to build relationships with their co-workers in a virtual environment.
  
  
• Retention Drivers – Areas that influence an employee’s desire and likelihood to stay at an organization, like Compensation, Benefits, Work-Life Balance, and Working Environment. Key takeaways highlight that changing work conditions brought on by the pandemic are no longer unique. Workers’ perceptions and expectations of flexible work arrangements and benefits have broadened alongside organizations offering expanded benefits packages throughout the pandemic. This has led to increased expectations for employers to provide more comprehensive benefits, including previously unseen perks such as summer Friday afternoons off or holiday shutdowns. The research also indicated that work-life balance is becoming a challenge in the new world of work, with 62% of organizations reporting increased working hours, though 80% also reported increased work flexibility. Despite improvements in 2020, retention scores returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2021, with Working Environment ranking as the highest retention driver, followed by Work-Life Balance, Benefits, and Compensation.

To recognize, assess, and improve upon employee engagement, HR leaders can take advantage of the full analysis of engagement and key driver trends over the last three years in the 2022 Employee Engagement Trends Report.

It’s important to remember that while using engagement data is critical in the process of determining best practices for employee engagement within an organization, it is a starting point and not the end of the conversation. To assist HR leaders in their efforts to improve upon employee engagement within their companies, McLean & Company offers various levels of support and practical resources to best suit their unique and individual needs, including DIY Toolkits, Guided Implementations, Workshops, and Consulting

To learn more about McLean & Company or to download all the latest research, visit hr.mcleanco.com and connect via LinkedIn and Twitter.

Media professionals are encouraged to register for McLean & Company’s Media Insiders program for more research and insights. This program provides unrestricted, on-demand access to HR, IT, and software industry content as well as subject matter experts from a group of over 200 research analysts. To apply for access, contact pr@mcleanco.com.

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