What drives employee engagement and loyalty? A new study by a research subsidiary of ITA Group offers some fresh insights. 

The issue: Organizations invest billions of dollars to bolster employee engagement, but the return on these investments is unclear. According to the Gallup State of the Global Workplace report, only 15 percent of adult employees are engaged with their employers worldwide.

To address critical issues of employee retention and engagement, market research firm Chadwick Martin Bailey in Boston, a subsidiary of West Des Moines-based global engagement agency ITA Group, conducted a study in 2018 to understand the psychological benefits that drive employee loyalty. 

Based on that research, ITA Group has developed EngageFx, a diagnostic tool for companies to identify their best areas of opportunity to improve the employee experience.
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CMB’s research, which leveraged scientific insight into human motivation and advanced analytic techniques, surveyed nearly 1,500 full-time employees at U.S.-based companies across a range of industries. The results of the study found that:

•  Five types of psychological benefits are critical to driving employee engagement: functional, emotional, personal identity, social identity and cultural identity.

•  Identity benefits are particularly important, highlighting the need to continually foster employees’ pride, self-esteem and sense of belonging.

•  By identifying the key psychological benefits that should be their top priority for improvement, companies can be strategic in their use of engagement initiatives and focus resources on programs likely to work best.

“This is in line with what social science teaches us about the kinds of things that motivate behavior,” said Erica Carranza, vice president of consumer psychology at CMB and co-author of the research study. “Employees across tenure, level and role are motivated by the psychological benefits we identified in this research — and the companies with programs in place to deliver these benefits will reap the rewards of a dedicated workforce.”

The research shows that companies must offer more than competitive compensation packages and work/life balance to engage their workforce, said Christina Zurek, insights and strategy leader with ITA Group. 

“While making a bigger push for wellness programs and similar initiatives can help, the most powerful investment a company can make in order to engage employees is to nurture emotional and identity benefits,” she said. 

To view a copy of the full CMB research report, click here. To learn more about ITA Group’s exclusive diagnostic tool, EngageFx, click here.