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Is your employee engagement program effective? Odds are, the answer is no.
90% of leaders understand the importance of employee engagement, but less than 50% have a plan to address it.
Unless your organization has a clear strategy for engaging employees, your managers' tactics are likely to disappoint. But where to start?
The best way to engage your employees and achieve proven results is by implementing an employee engagement model.
What is the theory of employee engagement?
Employee engagement theory is the idea that employers should actively engage their employees in the workplace. The theory suggests that when team members are engaged in the workplace, they are more likely to be productive and positively impact the company.
A variety of models have been developed to study why and how employees are engaged at work. These models offer an understanding of employee engagement and suggest strategies for developing it.
4 well-known employee engagement theories and models
There are many ways leaders can approach employee engagement in their organizations. Models of employee engagement can offer proven frameworks for success, making them a helpful tool alongside employee engagement solutions.
1. Kahn's theory of employee engagement
Psychologist William Kahn is considered the first academic to identify the concept of employee engagement. His research on personal engagement in the workplace culminated in his 1990 work, “Psychological Conditions of Personal Engagement and Disengagement”.
According to Kahn's model, there are three dimensions of employee engagement: physical, cognitive, and emotional. Levels of employee engagement can vary across these dimensions.
Kahn also identified three psychological conditions for employees to become engaged at work. These include finding their work meaningful, feeling safe, and being physically and emotionally available.
Learn more:
- Read Kahn's "Psychological Conditions of Personal Engagement and Disengagement at Work" online.
- Discover how an employee engagement platform can help improve your team's communication and sense of belonging.
2. Gallup's Employee Engagement Model and Q12 Survey
Using internationally-renowned research, workplace analytics group Gallup developed an employee engagement framework based on a hierarchy of employee needs. The following creates a pyramid, from bottom to top:
- Basic needs
- Individual contributions
- Teamwork
- Growth
Each level builds upon the previous one, creating a roadmap for managers to motivate and develop their team members.
The Gallup model is the basis for the well-known employee engagement survey, the Q12. This tool features 12 specific questions to measure engagement at each pyramid level.
Learn more:
- Check out the details of Gallup's Employee Engagement Survey.
- Here's the science behind Gallup's Q12 survey questions.
- What Gallup’s employee engagement survey tells us in 2022
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