Trained managers, autonomy, and career growth: The 3 pillars of employee engagement

Managers continue to stand at the frontline of any company’s leadership, serving as the lynchpins of employee satisfaction.

The advent of more flexible work will require more skilled managers equipped with new approaches to employee engagement, affirms a report by Economist Impact, and sponsored by Kyocera Document Solutions.

The survey of 250 business executives from Australia, Germany, Japan, the UK, and the US, gauged confidence of respondents across several pillars, one of which was employee engagement. The barometer scores were scaled from 1 to 7, 7 being the most confident, in the report titled The Magnetic Workplace: keys to unlock sustainable growth for business.  Participants represented companies including Stripe, PwC, and Google.

Trained managers, autonomy, and career growth emerged as the three factors most likely to impact employee engagement for the purposes of this report, thus let's dive into the findings into each of these below.

Responsive, well-trained managers

Managers continue to stand at the frontline of any company’s leadership, serving as the lynchpins of employee satisfaction. Although training is often spoken about in relation to firms’ rank-and-file employees, managers are just as much in need of training, especially if they have been newly promoted. Globally, the confidence level for management leadership training stands at 5.28 and is expected to reach 5.40 in five years’ time.

From the findings, it became clear the advent of more flexible work will require more skilled managers equipped with new approaches to employee engagement. This next generation of managers need to be able to manage scattered workforces and encourage effective communication via digital modes.

More autonomy for all

When employees can set the terms of how and when they work, they produce better outcomes and report higher job satisfaction. Empowering them to set professional goals and work scopes can instil a stronger sense of ownership and improve retention. Currently, employees’ confidence level in terms of shaping their role is 5.34 and is expected to grow to 5.44 in five years’ time. 

Sectoral analysis showed that flexible work is here to stay, especially among industries where remote work arrangements have the biggest impacts such as media and IT (5.76), finance and insurance (5.57), and retail (5.56). Such workplaces can leverage flexible work options to provide employees with more autonomy, but also to access more diverse talent. Flexible work continues to allow employees to work in a way that maximises their performance, when used effectively. 

Accessible opportunities for professional development

The advent of more sophisticated technology is driving the need for more digital literacy among workers, as well as the development of key soft skills. At present, employees’ confidence level in terms of developing existing skills and acquiring new skills is 5.33. Its anticipated score in five years’ time is 5.41.

Workplaces with strong career focus are not focused on just attracting and retaining talent, but upskilling and developing existing employees. Employees are actively looking for companies that foster upskilling and career growth, and companies that can meet these demands will see their retention improve.

In addition to the factors above, here are 10 market- or sector-specific data points of interest from the report:

1. Employees care about workforce diversity and wellbeing now more than ever, and 68% of respondents feel confident their organisations have introduced recruitment processes that enhance diversity.
2. 74.8%* of surveyed companies globally are confident about the future of digital collaboration, saying they are confident about providing their organisations with the tech infrastructure needed to facilitate greater productivity within the next five years. [*where it is stated a certain % of respondents are confident, it means they indicated a confidence level of 5 or greater]
3. The retail, media and IT, and financial industries are likely to perform best in the workplace of the future, whilst the construction and real estate industries will struggle.
4. Shifting to an outcome-driven style of management was shown to encourage transparency and trust between managers and employers.
5. Strong communication ability among managers and effective feedback mechanisms were noted in the US (5.96) and Australia (5.67), although improvement is expected in Germany and Japan.
6. Job-crafting, which is defined as allowing employees to have a hand in shaping their role, was also found to have improved employee job satisfaction and engagement.
7. However, despite a more manageable scale, smaller companies were found to be less likely to offer flexible work arrangements or access to job-crafting.
8. Organisations in most geographies are very forthcoming in providing flexibility for employees, with the highest scores garnered by companies in the US (5.77) and UK (5.73), followed by Australia (5.64) and Germany (5.62).
9. Japan was less certain about facilitating flexible working, or bolstering technological infrastructure, though 52%* of Japanese respondents expressed optimism for flexible working arrangements in the future.
10. Organisations from the US (5.64) and Australia (5.48) displayed much more confidence that their technology adoption strategies had kept pace with innovation.

Commenting on the report, Naka Kondo at Economist Impact said: "Whilst companies globally are optimistic, they must ensure they continue to prioritise human-centric strategies in order to drive sustainable growth."

Lead image / The Magnetic Workplace report