When a survey measures an organization’s employee engagement, it measures “retention elements” and “engagement elements.” What’s the difference?

Retention elements include pay, benefits, or an entire compensation package. These are items that keep an employee working, but they don’t create engagement. Employees will stay with a company that compensates them well. But this doesn’t mean that they go above or beyond to achieve their goals or the goals of the organization.

Engagement elements, on the other hand, are those elements that push an employee from a working drone to an active, engaged member of a work team who furthers the goals of the organization. Rewards and recognition is an example of an engagement element. When an employee is recognized for her contributions in front of her peers, for instance, her engagement level goes up. Other engagement elements include employee accountability/ownership, leadership, culture, company vision, and corporate responsibility.

Discussion Prompt

Select one engagement element from the following list:

• rewards/recognition
• employee accountability/ownership
• leadership
• culture
• company vision
• corporate responsibility

Find a company that’s exercising your chosen engagement element well. Do a quick write up of that company and how they’re keeping their employees engaged with that element. Once you’ve done your write up, review the write-ups of two of your classmates and make comments.

Grading

Share your opinions below and respond to two of your classmates’ thoughts.