Emerging Trends in Employee Engagement: A Review of Literature

Abstract

One of the strategic areas identified in Global Human Capital trend study 2014 by Deloitte is attract and engage. The topic deserves attention because 78% of the managers who participated in the study rated retention and engagement as urgent or important. Employee engagement is the extent to which employees feel passionate about their jobs, are committed to their organizations, and put discretionary effort into their work. Engaging people has become a source of competitive advantage for the organizations. Though there are hundreds of vendors offering validated surveys and benchmarking tools, managers feel these as insufficient majorly because the current process is neither detailed enough nor real time. Moreover with Generation Y at work, who looks at experience rather than engagement, employee engagement garners furthermore attention. In this context the concept of engagement needs redefining. The purpose of this conceptual study is to present an overall view of the new engagement models aimed at creating irresistible organizations. Seminal works on the topic are identified and reviewed for a better understanding of the developments in the field. Emerging as well as consistent predictors of employee engagement in Indian context are discussed in detail. Also, the article explores the upcoming tools and approaches which better measures happiness, alignment, and job satisfaction in real time. While companies in India have started recognizing the impact of employee engagement, a large proportion is yet to understand the extent of the real challenge. The roadblocks and implications for Indian organizations bring this article to a close.

Keywords: Employee Engagement, Modern Workforce, Emerging Trends, Changing Work Place

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