SHRM FOUNDATION’S EFFECTIVE
PRACTICE
GUIDELINES
Employee
Engagement and
Commitment
A guide to understanding,
measuring and increasing
engagement in your organization
Robert J. Vance, Ph.D.
SHRM
FOUNDATION’S
EFFECTIVE
PRACTICE
GUIDELINES
Employee
Engagement and
Commitment
A guide to understanding,
measuring and increasing
engagement in your organization
Robert J. Vance, Ph.D.
ii
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information regarding the subject matter covered.
Neither the publisher nor the author is engaged in rendering legal or other professional service. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent, licensed professional should be sought. Any federal and state laws discussed in this book are subject to frequent revision and interpretation by amendments or judicial revisions that may significantly affect employer or employee rights and obligations. Readers are encouraged to seek legal counsel regarding specific policies and practices in their organizations.
This book is published by the SHRM Foundation, an affiliate of the Society for Human Resource Management
(SHRM©). The interpretations, conclusions and recommendations in this book are those of the author and do not
necessarily represent those of the SHRM Foundation.
©2006 SHRM Foundation. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America.
This publication may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in whole or in part, in any form
or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission
of the SHRM Foundation, 1800 Duke Street, Alexandria, VA 22314.
The SHRM Foundation is the 501(c)3 nonprofit affiliate of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).
The SHRM Foundation maximizes the impact of the HR profession on organizational decision-making and
performance by promoting innovation, education, research and the use of research-based knowledge. The Foundation
is governed by a volunteer board of directors, comprising distinguished HR academic and practice leaders.
Contributions to the SHRM Foundation are tax deductible. Visit the Foundation online at
www.shrm.org/foundation.
For more information, contact the SHRM Foundation at (703) 535-6020. Online at www.shrm.org/foundation.
06-0622
Table of Contents
Foreword. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Employee Engagement and Commitment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Employee Engagement: Key Ingredients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
The Link Between Employer Practices and Employee Engagement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
A Closer Look at Workforce Surveys. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Designing Engagement Initiatives: Guidelines to Consider . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Sources and Suggested Readings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
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Foreword
The SHRM Foundation Board of Directors appreciates how difficult it is for HR
practitioners to keep abreast of current research findings and incorporate them into
their own HR practices.
Human resource professionals juggle multiple responsibilities and do not have time to
read long research reports, no matter how beneficial. Realistically, most HR
practitioners will seek guidance from research findings only if they are presented in a
clear, concise, and usable format.
To address this issue and make research more accessible, the SHRM Foundation
created the Effective Practice Guidelines series in 2004. The Foundation publishes a new
report annually on different HR topics. Past reports, available from the Foundation,
include Performance Management and Selection Assessment Methods. You are now
reading the third report in the series: Employee Engagement and Commitment.
To create each report, a subject matter expert with both research and practitioner
experience distills the research findings and expert opinion into specific advice on how
to conduct effective HR practice. The report is then reviewed by a panel of academics
and practitioners to ensure that the material is comprehensive and meets the needs of
HR practitioners. An annotated bibliography is included with each report as a
convenient reference tool.
The newly created SHRM Foundation Research Applications Committee oversees
production of the reports. Our goal is to present relevant research-based knowledge in
an easy-to-use format. Please let us know if we’ve achieved that goal.
The Foundation’s mission is “The SHRM Foundation maximizes the impact of the
HR profession on organizational decision-making and performance, by promoting
innovation, education, research and the use of research-based knowledge.” We are
confident that the Effective Practice Guidelines series takes us one step closer to making
that vision a reality.