Understanding the key drivers of

engagement for employees in the UK

Third Sector

Roger Parry, Agenda Consulting

January 2015

Agenda Consulting

People Research Consultancy focussing on the not-for-profit

sector. Specialist areas:

Employee and volunteer surveys

HR and volunteers benchmarking

Reward

HR strategy and effectiveness

Organisational change

Research Database

We included:

– most recent survey only

– Only UK employees

Research database comprises:

– 50 surveys from 50 organisations

– 9,100 employees in the UK

We use 3 engagement questions

I would willingly put in extra effort in order to help the

organisation

– Personal discretionary effort

I am proud to tell people that I work for this organisation

– Personal emotional response

I would wholeheartedly recommend the organisation to

others as a good place to work

– Advocacy of the organisation

% of employees positive

Extra Effort and Proud are high within the sector

Good Place to Work more modest

Good Place to Work v Extra Effort

% of employees positive by organisation

Weak relationship (Correlation (r) = 0.34)

Conclusions

1. These 3 questions behave differently and clearly measure

different things

2. Engagement is not a precise term – depends on the

questions used

3. We consider that the Good Place To Work question is the

best measure for the Third Sector:

– most demanding/discriminating

– most influenced by organisational factors – a key tenet

of employee engagement

Model Results

Leadership, Values and Communication account for

nearly half the impact

Conclusions

1. Perceptions of Leadership, Values and Communication

strongly influence Good Place to Work (47% together)

2. Or in other words, perceptions of:

• leadership group and whether they are trustworthy

• strength of values/ethics in practice

• whether there is open and honest communication

– Are very important factors for staff. And influence their

willingness to recommend the organisation as a good place

to work

3. If an organisation wishes to improve the proportion of

employees who would recommend it as a good place to work,

then these three factors are likely to be important.

Conclusions

4. Perceptions of Role, Wellbeing and Service have medium

influence (32% together)

5. Perceptions of Reward, Learning and Development,

Management and Colleagues are the weakest (21%)

6. Or in other words, it is quite possible for staff to be happy about

their reward, their learning, their manager and their colleagues

but to be critical of the organisation as a whole

7. The research does not imply that these factors are unimportant

to staff. It does imply that getting these factors right on their

own is unlikely to be sufficient to drive engagement forwards

8. Also, the research does not imply that managers are

unimportant - they have a big impact in driving perceptions.

Good Place to Work % positive by

sector, role, length of service

Recommendations

1. Include Good Place to Work as one of your engagement

questions

2. Be consistent in the way you measure engagement

3. Pay particular attention to perceptions of Leadership,

Values and Communications and to the ways that

managers influence perceptions

4. Explore the relative impact of the factors in your

organisation – and prioritise the most important

5. Sector Matters – benchmark your organisation against

others in the same sector

Contact details

Roger Parry, Director

Clare Harris, Head of Business Development

Agenda Consulting

T: 01865 263720

www.agendaconsulting.co.uk

Question per topic

Colleagues: I work with skilled competent people who are

good at their jobs

Communications: This organisation practises open, honest

communication and shares information

Leadership: I trust and respect the leadership group in this

organisation

Learning: This organisation helps me to acquire skills and

knowledge that will benefit my future career

Management: I trust and respect my immediate manager

Reward: I am rewarded fairly for the contribution I make in my

particular job

Role: The work that I do gives me a feeling of personal

achievement

Service I believe that this organisation delivers a high quality

service to its external customers

Values: This organisation has strong values and operates to

high ethical standards

Wellbeing: I am badly treated or bullied at work

Question per topic

Internal Communications Group

The role of internal

communications in employee

engagement

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