New research has suggested that Britain's fledgling economic rebound could be jeopardised if the country's leading companies fail to address flaws in their employee engagement strategies.
A study carried out by consultant Mercer revealed that its communication indicator slipped by 17 percentage points between 2006 and this year, despite the significant worsening of the UK's financial strength during this period.
"At a time of economic uncertainty, we'd expect high employee engagement," said Mercer's human capital head Chris Johnson. "The reverse seems to be true – primarily due to a mismatch in perceptions."
Mercer suggested that some friction has emerged due to varying views on reward levels, with many businesses "underestimating" the value workers place on basic salaries, their work-life balance and security of employment.
Earlier this week, Work Wise UK chief executive Phil Flaxton stated that employee engagement should be individually tailored and claimed a "one-size-fits-all" approach is unlikely to have much impact.
Posted by Cameron Thomson
This comes as no surprise to me, and I’m sure that most experienced managers would say that unless specific efforts are made, morale will generally be lower at times of economic uncertainty and recession.
Interestingly, our work for clients has shown a subtle shift in the factors that engage people over the past two years. There is less emphasis now on training and development as a driver of engagement, and rather more on aspects such as job security.