Engaging for success: enhancing performance through employee engagement, a report to Government

Printed in the UK on recycled paper containing a minimum of 75% post consumer waste. The text in this document may be reproduced free of charge in any format or medium providing it is reproduced accurately and not used in a misleading context. The material must be acknowledged as Crown copyright and the title of the document specified. Where we have identified any third party material you will need to obtain permission from the parties concerned. The views expressed in this report are the authors' and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department or the Government. The authors are not responsible for any third party material. Original material for the case studies has been supplied by the organisations themselves and were chosen to reflect a range of sectors of the UK economy, but do not constitute a representative sample. This timely Report sets out for the first time the evidence that underpins what we all know intuitively, which is that only organisations that truly engage and inspire their employees produce world class levels of innovation, productivity and performance. The lessons that flow from that evidence can and should shape the way leaders and managers in both the private and public sectors think about the people who work for them. They should also shape the way employees approach their jobs and careers. A recession might seem an unusual time for such reflection – in fact, the opposite is the case. Because Britain's economic recovery and its competitive strengths in a global economy will be built on strong, innovative companies and confident employees, there has never been a more important time to think about employee engagement in Britain. This report helps take forward that debate. It sets out what government can do to help promote an understanding of just how much greater employee engagement can help improve innovation, performance and productivity across the economy. It launches a challenge that my department will take forward in the months ahead. 1 Introduction 1 We were asked by the then Secretary of State for Business in the autumn of 2008 to take an in-depth look at employee engagement and to report on its potential benefits for companies, organisations and individual employees. When the new Secretary of State, Lord Mandelson, met us in the spring, as the recession was biting, he encouraged us to examine in particular whether a wider take up of engagement approaches …