I’ve recently clocked up 10 years with Onetest. Although not long in some contexts – by today’s estimates the universe has just gone 13.7 billion years – it has been long enough for me to stop and reflect on a few things without resting too long on my laurels. In particular I’ve been thinking about the key drivers of employee engagement - specifically, what has kept me at the same workplace for this period of time, how have I remained engaged in the work I undertake and satisfied that I am meeting my professional development needs. Of course, the question as to why Onetest has chosen to continue my tenure over this time occurred to me also.
Clearly influenced by my psych background and training, my next step was to look at the employee engagement data we’ve been gathering. This dataset consisted of responses captured across six years of internal employee engagement surveys conducted with Onetest employees. Perhaps this could help identify what factors have played an important role in my continued tenure and engagement with the organisation.
Employee engagement can be broadly defined as the extent to which employees are committed to their organisation, believe in and support the organisation’s values and are willing to work hard so as to achieve organisational goals. Engagement can also be understood in light of the “indicators” used to measure it; in our case citizenship behaviour, job satisfaction, organisational commitment, turnover intentions and task engagement. But what are those factors or “drivers” that are most closely related to and therefore most influential in determining levels of employee engagement at Onetest?
From the 14 employee engagement drivers we had been measuring, there did appear to be a few which rose to the top and displayed strong and consistent correlation with employee engagement. It’s probably not surprising to many that perceptions of senior leadership was one such driver (e.g. senior managers have a good understanding of the challenges and issues faced by staff), as leadership is consistently linked to engagement-related indicators such as turnover and commitment. The interpretation here is that those at Onetest who perceived their leaders positively were generally more engaged than those with less positive perceptions. A sense of organisational justice also seemed to play a critical role (e.g. rules and procedures are applied equally and consistently across all employees), as did role clarity (e.g. I know what is expected of me in my job).
The take home from this for Onetest is that a focus on strategies tailored to enhancing perceptions of senior leadership, organisational justice and role clarity could prove to be a significant step in ensuring employees were engaged and productive. What’s interesting is that of the 14 employee engagement drivers measured these three were only moderately endorsed relative to the ratings provided for other drivers. For instance responsibility (e.g. how well I do my job affects others) and customer relations (e.g. customer / client satisfaction is highly valued by all employees) attracted the most favourable ratings but appeared to influence overall engagement levels much less significantly. Onetest therefore has room to move in that perceptions of senior leaders, organisational justice and role clarity can be improved if the right strategies are adopted. A related improvement in employee engagement levels should then occur.
These findings did help explain to some degree my own personal level of engagement with the organisation. My views are that senior leadership at Onetest has always been passionate – passionate about how we help our clients but also passionate about the well being of staff. Although the company has changed and matured over time, the family orientation that was so apparent in the early years still remains. This is probably no more evident than in the way employees are treated (organisational justice) - fairly and equally irrespective of length of service or occupational position. Also my experience is that particular attention has been placed on clearly defining KPI and role requirements in recent years (role clarity), something more easily achieved as company strategy and direction is now clearly defined. As to why the powers that be have chosen to keep me around, I’m not entirely sure. One thing I do know is that if you occasionally let the CFO beat you at table tennis; your pay consistently arrives on time. Here’s to the next 13.7 billion years at Onetest – interesting to think what we’ll be blogging about then.
