1. Bridging Science and Practice
Employee Engagement:
Bridging Science and Practice
A webinar by Dr. Patrick O’Neill
CAPACITY Leadership

2. Organizational Psychologist Founder CAPACITY Leadership
Your Presenter
Dr. Patrick O’Neill
Organizational Psychologist Founder CAPACITY Leadership

3. Where do HR practitioners & managers go to answer the most pressing
questions on employee engagement?

4. Google search yields hundreds of Employee Engagement Models...

5. ...leads to conceptual confusion and no clear road map for action!
The local bookstore...
Competing frameworks & definitions
Lots of advice, less evidence
Widely differing claims for ROI
...leads to conceptual confusion and no clear road map for action!

6. “Frankly, we don’t even agree on what
it is we’re attempting to change,
much less how to go about changing it.”
-SVP of Administration Finance Services Company

7. For years, theories of
engagement have
outpaced science...
...but science has caught up.

8. We now know... What engagement is and is not How to measure it
What drives it
Its relationship with organizational performance
How to maximize it in organizations

9. ...the average journal article is
Unfortunately...
...the average journal article is
read by seven people.

10. A mismatch between
what science knows,
and business does.

11. Distilling the truth from the myth of engagement...
...bring the science to the people!

12. Why the focus on engagement?

13. Psychological Abstracts (1967-2000)
Anger: 5,584
Anxiety: 41,416
Depression: 54,040
Joy: 415
Happiness: 1,710
Life satisfaction: 2,582
Ratio: 14/1

14. Shifting the Pendulum
“The aim of Positive Psychology is to catalyze a change in psychology
from a preoccupation only with repairing the worst things in life
to also building the best qualities in life.”
Martin Selligman
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

15. Positive Organizational Scholarship
What can organizations do to attract and keep creative, dedicated, and thriving employees who make organizations flourish?

16. The Three Pillars of Happiness
Pleasure
Engagement
Meaning

17. What is Employee Engagement?
Old wine in a new bottle?
Getting paid less to do more?
A consultant’s dream?

18. The Essence of Engagement...
“A positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterized by: vigour, dedication, and absorption” (Schaufeli et al., 2006)
The opposite of ‘burnout’ - work exhaustion, cynicism, depersonalization
“...a genuine willingness to contribute to organizational success” (Albrecht, 2010)

19. RESIGNED SATISFACTION
HIGH ACTIVATION
Excited
Agitated
Hostile
Enthusiastic
Irritated
Energized
Angry
Happy
WORKAHOLISM
ENGAGEMENT
Tense
Pleased
UNPLEASANT
PLEASANT
BURNOUT
RESIGNED SATISFACTION
Dejected
Lethargic
Content
Fatigued
Relaxed
Calm
Gloomy
Tranquil
Sad
LOW ACTIVATION
Russell & Carroll (1999)

20. The Dimensions of Engagement
Vigour- high levels of energy and mental resilience while working, the willingness to invest effort in one’s work, and persistence in the face of difficulties.
Dedication- strongly involved in one’s work and experience a sense of significance, enthusiasm, inspiration, pride & challenge.
Absorption- a state of ‘flow’; fully concentrated and engrossed in one’s work; time stands still.

21. Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES)
Vigour
At my work, I feel bursting with energy
At my job, I feel strong and vigorous
Dedication
To me, my job is challenging
I am enthusiastic about my job
Absorption
When I am working, I forget everything else around me
I am completely immersed in my work
Schaufeli et al. (2006)

22. What Engagement looks like...

23. When was the last time you
felt fully engaged?
Where were you?
What were you doing?

24. How engaged are we at work?
Engagement in the United States
2012 U.S. Gallup Poll

25. Why should we care
about engagement?

26. Why managers should care
Engaged employees...
behave in more persistent ways
respond proactively to emerging threats and challenges
craft their roles at work
adapt more readily to change
- Macey et al., 2009

27. Why executives should care
Engagement behaviours are correlated with...
Better performance
Lower absenteeism & turnover
Higher productivity
Client satisfaction
Engaged colleagues
- Demerouti & Cropanzano, 2010

28. Why shareholders should care
Study by Macey et al. (2009)
65 firms in different industries completed engagement index
Compared financial results for top 25% with bottom 25%
What were the financial consequences?

29. q= the ratio of a firm’s market value to time replacement cost of its assets

30. Final Engagement Model
Organizational
outcomes
Profit
Low staff turnover & absenteeism
Customer satisfaction
Performance productivity
Drivers of engagement
State of engagement
Engagement-driven
behaviours
Vigor
Dedication
Absorption ?
Persistence
Initiative
Job-Crafting
Adaptability
Personal outcomes
Job satisfaction
Career progression
Engaged colleagues
Adapted from Fleck and Inceoglu, (2010)

31. What Drives Engagement?

32. It’s not this... +

33. Enabling Engagement
“ People are able to achieve extraordinary accomplishments if they are able to meet their own self-fulfilling needs while pursuing the goals of the organization.”
-Abraham Maslow

34. Person-Organization Fit
Aligning personal and organizational values
Fosters trust and psychological safety
You can’t force fit!
Kristof-Brown et al. (2005)

35. Harrah’s Entertainment
Get Me
Take the time to know me
Know my aspirations
Know how I learn
Know what inspires me
Respect and understand my strengths and opportunities
Be aware of my challenges
Understand how to motivate me
Guide Me
Show me what success looks like
Provide me with coaching tools and resources for success
Make the path forward clear and well lit
Protect me along the way
Root For Me
Be my biggest fan
Celebrate my success
Bring me to the attention of others when I succeed
Challenge me to be better than I ever thought I could be
Create an environment where I can succeed
Commit yourself to my development

36. Person-Job Fit What needs to fit? Knowledge, skills, and abilities
Job demands and resources
Personal resources

37. What makes work engaging?
Job Demands
Job Resources
Physical Demands
Feedback
Mental Demands
Skill Variety
Emotional Demands
Social Support
Workload
Autonomy

38. Job Demands/Resources Model
Burnout
Work Engagement
HIGH
Demands
APATHY
BOREDOM
LOW
LOW
HIGH
Resources
Bakker, A.B., & Demerouti, E. (2007)

39. Personal Resources
Positive affectivity (PA): A predisposition to experience positive emotions and self-concept
Optimism, self-efficacy, resilience, extraversion
Drives success in work and life, rather than the reverse (Lyubomirsky et al., 2003)

40. The Impact of Positive Emotions
Compelling evidence linking PA to:
Income
Mental & physical health
Longevity
Job Performance
Longitudinal evidence that PA engenders success in work and life, rather than the reverse.
Lyubomirsky et al. (2003)

41. Final Engagement Model
Drivers of engagement
State of engagement
Engagement-driven
behaviours
Organizational
outcomes
Profit
Low staff turnover & absenteeism
Customer satisfaction
Performance productivity
Person- organization fit
Person-job fit
Vigor
Dedication
Absorption
Persistence
Initiative
Job-Crafting
Adaptability
Personal outcomes
Job satisfaction
Career progression
Engaged colleagues
Personal resources
Adapted from Fleck and Inceoglu, (2010)

42. Customizing Your Model
Use research-based model as a baseline
Use valid and reliable measures of employee engagement, its drivers, and consequences
Determine the strongest predictors and consequences for your organization
Move beyond descriptive statistics to answer the “why?” of engagement
Collect longitudinal data to strengthen causal inferences

43. ACT ON THE SURVEY RESULTS!

44. How can we maximize engagement?

45. Enhancing P-O Fit Choose goals and values that engage
Involve employees!
Measure values congruence
Values defined & measured in behavioural terms
Distinguish espoused vs. actual values
“How important are these values to your organization?”
“How much importance do you place on these values?”
Select people who share your values
Facilitate values fit through induction, training, “socialization”

46. Job Enrichment Focus on job resources:
Autonomy- Give employees discretion over how they perform tasks and time for personal development
Support- Provide opportunities to build social networks (informal gatherings, team projects)
Feedback- Catch staff doing something right!
Skill variety- Provide opportunities for job expansion & rotation
Why it works:
Reduces the impact of job demands on strain
Helps to set and meet challenging, meaningful work goals
Stimulates personal growth, learning & development

47. Positive Interventions
Over 200 “happiness” initiatives tested
Randomly assigned, placebo controlled studies
Well-being can be taught
Lasting increases in well-being (positive emotions, engagement, meaning)

48. What Works? Gratitude list Identify and leverage “signature strengths”
VIA strengths survey (
Acts of kindness
Mindfulness meditation

49. Why They Work Create a self-perpetuating upward spiral
A double-edged sword - enhance employee well-being while creating a climate of engagement (group cohesion, team spirit, loyalty, pro-social behaviour)

50. Coaching for engagement
Focus on integrating personal and organizational goals
Recognize and leverage employee strengths
Celebrate accomplishments
Provide support & opportunities for recovery

51. Questions?

52. References