Article

November 6, 2024

15 Key Factors influencing Employee Engagement in 2023

Blair Williamson

15 minute read

We know that employee engagement is important for companies that want to get the most from their workers. What factors are most important for influencing employee engagement? The 15 most important factors are explained in detail here.

What is Employee Engagement?

Employee engagement describes the level of involvement and enthusiasm employees have for their work and their workplace. It also helps employers measure (and manage) employees’ perspectives on workplace culture.

Employers can measure employee engagement to determine whether their employees are actively engaged when they go to work or if they are just doing the minimum required to collect their pay check. They can also get a sense of whether current human resources policies are resulting in positive outcomes or if there is room for improvement.

By paying attention to key factors of employee engagement, employers can discover what they can do to improve their employees’ relationship with their work and the company.

Why Employee Engagement is Important

Employees come to work daily and make choices that that affect their fellow employees and the entire organization. The way the company treats employees (and how employees interact with each other) has a tremendous influence on how employees behave at work. This influence can be either positive or negative.

If employees aren’t engaged, then teams of workers won’t be engaged. It becomes challenging to get positive business outcomes. According to Gallup, the difference between top and bottom quartile business units showed the following outcomes:

81% lower absenteeism rates
64% fewer accidents
58% fewer patient safety incidents (falls and fatal events)
43% reduction in turnover for low turnover companies
41% reduction in quality (defects)
28% less shrinkage due to theft
23% boost in profitability
18% more productivity (sales)
18% reduction in turnover for high turnover companies
10% increase in customer loyalty

How to Improve Employee Engagement

The manager has an important role to play in determining the level of employee engagement within a company. Part of their role is to ensure that their team members know what needs to be done and to support them in their efforts. The manager is in the perfect position to explain to employees how their efforts lead to success for the organization.

It’s crucial that managers have ongoing coaching conversations with employees. These conversations allow the manager to check in with workers and find out how the employee feels about their work and defuse any frustrations the employee has in its early stages. The manager needs to take care not to appear to be micromanaging their team members, though, since this strategy never leads to job satisfaction.

→ Read more: Employee Engagement Best Practices

Employee Engagement

Time to start or overhaul an engagement strategy? Capitalize on Employee Engagement Opportunities.

15 Key Factors Influencing Employee Engagement in 2023

It’s not enough for company leaders to simply tell management to coach their teams and share thoughts about employee engagement. They need to ensure that management fully understands the factors that affect employee engagement and motivation.

1. Job Satisfaction Level

Job satisfaction is one of the most important factors affecting employee engagement. If employees don’t feel satisfied in their job, it’s very difficult for them to feel engaged when at work. This factor includes their daily duties, along with the following:

The company itself
The company leadership
Their coworkers
The workplace

Other factors influence job satisfaction, such as the employee’s remuneration level, company benefits, and opportunities for advancement. An employee can be working in a stressful occupation, but as long as they feel they are being remunerated fairly with good benefits and have good opportunities for career advancement may still describe themselves as being satisfied in their job. Another person doing the same type of work who doesn’t feel they are being remunerated along industry standards and is working for a company with poor prospects for advancement may express dissatisfaction with their job.

2. Sense of Meaning and Purpose

Employees who find their work meaningful will be more interested and engaged when they are on the job. It’s impossible for every business to concoct meaningful work for its employees.

It is possible for employers to improve employee satisfaction and engagement by taking concrete steps to add meaning to their jobs by taking these steps:

Show the employee how their job makes a positive impact on the company’s customers.
Offer more career development opportunities, including career counseling and mentorship opportunities on the job.
Improve training opportunities for employees

Employees who find their work meaningful will be more likely to become engaged in their work. They will be more likely to commit to an employer for a long term.

3. Company Culture

Company culture impacts engagement in several ways, such as the following:

A work culture that is welcoming, energetic, and positive will be more likely to have employees who are engaged in their work than employees who become negative and stressed out.
Employees who fit the company culture are more likely to be engaged in their work.
When the company recognizes and rewards excellent performance by employees, it can stimulate higher employee productivity and engagement.

The company can improve these areas by performing a detailed analysis and taking steps to address any issues. It may need to change the company culture entirely. Other companies may need to make adjustments to the way it manages talent or invests in new digital tools. A company intranet can assist new employees with onboarding successfully and helping all workers to fit into the company culture.

4. Work Environment

The work environment also makes the list of factors of employee engagement. Now that many employees work remotely, the work environment is much more than just a physical workspace. It also includes these factors that affect employee engagement:

Atmosphere, climate, and culture
Behavior and attitudes of company leaders
Digital work environment
Employees’ behavior and attitudes

All of these factors work in combination to influence employee engagement. They can impact employees in either a positive or a negative fashion.

Employees go to work and tend to soak up the atmosphere like a sponge. They may not even be aware of how the atmosphere, company culture, attitudes of the company leaders, and other factors are affecting their attitudes towards their own work. It can be very difficult to stay motivated and engaged when other employees aren’t doing the same.

5. Career Advancement Opportunities

Top employees are interested in joining companies that can present them with a career path when they sign on. They want to know that if they put in an effort for a number of years, that it will pay off in career advancement. If modern workers become bored or frustrated with their current jobs, they won’t hesitate to move on to another position.

To keep employees engaged in their current jobs and interested in staying with the company, employers must make career advancement a priority. It’s never too early to discuss job promotion potentials with job candidates; this should be part of the interview process.

Once a new employee is hired, they should be provided with career counseling advice and given opportunities for training through the company as often as appropriate. Allow employees to shadow workers in other departments to get a feel for other positions they may be interested in and to learn about other jobs in the company.

6. Company Management and Leadership

A company’s executives and managers have a major influence on employee satisfaction. When employees feel they can respect their leaders, they are more likely to listen to their instructions and follow them.

When company management is poor, though, it can have a negative effect on the following:

Employee engagement
Performance and productivity
Retention
Workplace culture

It takes time and effort to change poor company management. The rewards make the investment worth the effort. Employees will become more engaged in their work, they will interact much more effectively, and the entire organization will be more effective.

The most effective way to improve poor management is by introducing leadership development programs and continuing to optimize these programs with time.

7. A Digital Employee Experience

Modern companies are becoming more digitalized with time. The digital workplace is playing a more important role in the overall employee experience.

Employers can find multiple ways to improve the digital employee experience, including:

Updating the company’s infrastructure and IT tools
Adopting a company intranet to manage and improve the employee experience
Improve digital onboarding and training functions for new employees, so they feel welcome and start contributing their skills and knowledge to the company quickly

Companies can improve the digital experience in their organizations by assessing employee satisfaction. Next, they can determine where the problem areas lie and find ways to fix them. The best place to start is with the simplest ones, i.e. tackle the low-hanging fruit and the least expensive solutions first before moving on to the more expensive and complicated issues.

Employee Engagement

Time to start or overhaul an engagement strategy? Capitalize on Employee Engagement Opportunities.

8. Flexible Schedules

Flexibility is one of the critical factors that influence employee engagement. Employees may be part of the “sandwich generation,” which means they are caring for children and elderly parents at the same time. This doesn’t mean they don’t want to be engaged employees, but it does mean they have multiple commitments pulling on their available time.

A flexible schedule, which could mean working from home some days or starting work at an earlier or later time, means they can drop their children off at school or pick them up when necessary. It also means they can take their parents to medical appointments or visit them at long-term care facilities or in their homes. These accommodations make for better, less stressed employees and improves employee productivity.

9. Equitable Pay Structure

Salaries within a company can be a sensitive issue for employees to discuss. They are important ones for employees to understand, especially when they are looking at career development opportunities.

It’s important that the company be clear about its pay structure works and what it looks for when determining when an employee deserves a promotion. One way a company can be transparent about pay structure is to share the pay range for open positions when advertising them internally. That way, employees know exactly how much the position pays before they apply.

10. Encourage Employees to Learn Continuously

One of the key factors of employee engagement is for the employer to create a company culture that encourages employees to keep acquiring new knowledge. The company can boost information sharing among employees by deploying a virtual knowledge base available to all workers. This virtual knowledge base can include documents, research papers, sample contracts, and internet access for employees to conduct their own searches when necessary.

Once the team members understand that the company is interested in helping its employees improve themselves as well as its bottom line, the employees are more likely to work harder on the company’s behalf.

11. Cultural Diversity

Ideally, the workplace reflects the community that it serves. When a company hires employees from multiple backgrounds, it is stronger for it. Employees from several backgrounds, cultures, religions, and beliefs bring different points of view into the workplace. They help to create a workplace culture that is more tolerant and understanding than one where all employees come from a similar background.

A culturally diverse workforce makes for better marketers, since they are able to understand the wants and needs of a larger pool of potential customers. The same idea applies to the customer service team. If it is made up of people from a variety of backgrounds, they are better able to appreciate the customer’s point of view when they contact the company with questions or concerns.

12. Honesty and Transparency

These are crucial employee engagement success factors. Employees like to be dealt with fairly and honestly by company executives and managers. No one likes to hear about changes the company is contemplating from gossips or the rumor mill. These are not usually reliable sources of information.

When the company is doing well, employees should hear the news directly from company executives. Employee recognition for work well done should be a regular part of company business. Other workers will be inspired to work harder when they see their colleagues being recognized by management.

If the company is performing poorly, the employees should also be informed directly from the top. The CEO should make the announcement simply and inform employees about whatever decision has been made to improve the company’s fortunes. Employees will respect the executives more if they are dealt with honestly, even if the news involves cutting hours or layoffs.

13. Hire New Employees Mindfully

When recruiting new employees, it’s important for a company to proceed carefully before making an offer of employment to a candidate. A person can have a stellar resume, but if they don’t have the soft skills required for job success they will not be a good fit.

During the interview process, the company can ask the candidate questions involving realistic work scenarios to determine how the candidate will perform on the job. This is a good strategy for hiring candidates for more than their technical skills and knowledge. It helps to ensure that new employees are engaged and involved in their work.

Employers should make a point of assessing the whole candidate before making an offer. If they make a bad hire, it will be a costly proposition for them. Replacing someone who isn’t a good fit takes time, is very expensive, and has a negative impact on employee morale.

14. Get Employees Involved in their Work

Workers who are highly involved in their work come together to build employee engagement. The employer can help the process along by taking these steps:

Introducing a virtual suggestion system or online forums where employees can share their ideas for improving the company’s overall path.
Providing employees with relevant and specific information on their role in the company and the company trajectory
Implementing training and development programs to allow employees to succeed
Rewarding employees for their contributions in a timely manner

Management must commit to listen to employee suggestions and make changes it finds reasonable. Otherwise, it will lose the confidence of the employees. They will become less engaged and start to look for jobs elsewhere.

15. Invest in Modern Technology

A key factor in contributing to employee engagement is the technology the company uses daily. For employees to feel fully engaged in their work, they need the right technology.

If the company invests in advanced technology like an employee experience platform, it keeps employees from becoming frustrated when they do their work. Modern technology automates basic job functions and allows employees to be more productive during the work day. They can focus on doing more interesting, enjoyable work and putting their efforts toward tasks where their education, skills and knowledge can help them stand out.

The benefit for the company is that investing in up-to-date technology actually improves the bottom line. Employees work more efficiently and can spend more time on tasks that are profitable for the business.

Employee Engagement

Time to start or overhaul an engagement strategy? Capitalize on Employee Engagement Opportunities.

Discover our latest content on Employee Engagement

In today’s dynamic work environment, understanding and enhancing employee satisfaction is essential for boosting engagement and retention. LumApps, a leader in collaborative solutions, provides a robust platform to effectively address these elements, playing a crucial role in elevating the workplace experience and improving long-term organizational outcomes.

With the right strategies and tools, such as those provided by LumApps, businesses can enhance employee satisfaction and engagement, leading to a more committed, productive workforce. Embracing these practices not only improves the immediate work environment but also ensures long-term success and resilience in the ever-evolving corporate landscape.