Line managers and HR need to work together on employee engagement

Responsibility for raising employee engagement lies predominantly with line managers rather than HR departments but the two need to work more closely together says a new survey

Asked to consider the influence of managers and HR in engagement, 42 per cent of the 856 respondents said that it was mostly the duty of line managers, while 9 per cent felt it was entirely a management concern.

This compared with just 1 per cent of those polled who believed that responsibility lay mainly or wholly at the feet of HR. The significant remainder of respondents 48 per cent indicated that responsibility for increasing employee engagement should be shared between the two.

The People Management survey findings also revealed that 45 per cent of HR professionals felt they were more engaged than the wider workforce, compared to the one in four who disagreed with this assertion.

Respondents were split on whether workplace engagement had improved on one year ago with 42 per cent agreeing this was the case, 31 per cent disagreeing and 27 per cent remaining undecided.

But over half the HR professionals surveyed believed that employee engagement could be accurately measured (58 per cent), in comparison with 23 per cent who disagreed or strongly disagreed.

“The continued pressure on finances and resources within many organisations means that workforce engagement remains vitally important”, said People Management news editor James Brockett

“Our survey shows that opinion is still divided on whether employee engagement is on the rise; but it is interesting to discover that HR professionals believe responsibility for growing engagement lies chiefly with managers or should at least be shared between HR departments and the line.”