Although OPM and others have stressed the importance of employee engagement in recent years, a white paper from the agency concludes that there has been no common understanding of what that term means as it applies to the federal workforce.
It filled that void by defining employee engagement as “the employee’s sense of purpose that is evident in their display of dedication, persistence, and effort in their work or overall attachment to their organization and its mission.”
“Employee engagement is viewed here as a positive condition that benefits the organization. The focus for agencies, therefore, is to implement and foster conditions that increase engagement, and ultimately, impact key organizational drivers of success,” it says.
“To promote high levels of engagement, it is imperative for agencies to develop specific initiatives and institute best practices. Engagement programs and interventions should be designed and implemented based on the unique needs of an agency and its workforce. Managers at all levels should strive to leverage opportunities to collaborate with employees, both formally and informally.
“To develop effective engagement strategies, senior leadership should collaborate with agency human resources teams to determine specific engagement priorities and develop a strategy for effective long-term employee engagement and retention . . . such strategies should also be embedded into an agency’s strategic human capital planning process and reviewed and revised based on changing employee needs, workforce requirements, and organizational priorities,” it says.
