Research we have done at MISCO has shown that for people in general, life’s hierarchy of priorities appears to be changing.

In the last 15 years, the percentage of persons who consider leisure time to be very important in their life increased very significantly from 48 per cent to 82 per cent. Meanwhile, the percentage of persons who consider work to be very important in their life increased from 71 per cent to 78 per cent.

The increase in relation to work is likely to be due to an increased participation rate in the labour force caused by an increase in female participation. However, what is important to note that is that in the hierarchy of priorities, leisure time has become more important than work.

This changes the way both employers and employees need to view work, and it explains the title of this week’s contribution. Given that leisure time is more important than work, albeit by a small percentage, employers have the increased challenge to maintain employee engagement at a high level.

Employee engagement has been defined as the extent to which employees are committed to helping their organisation achieve its objectives. Such a commitment is shown by how an employee thinks, feels and acts, as well as the emotional bond an employee feels towards their organisation, their work and their colleagues. There was a time when we used to use the expression “going the extra mile”, to indicate an employee who puts in the extra effort.

I believe that most employees do put in the extra effort at work but this does not make them engaged. They demonstrate a sense of commitment to their job, but not necessarily a commitment towards understanding their employer’s objectives and helping to achieve those objectives. I believe that this happens because of two factors.

First, although there would be a strong emotional bond with their work, there would not be a strong emotional bond with the organisation and/or their colleagues. Think of employees who perform very well but bad-mouth their employer or their colleagues.

Second, although the effort and the diligence on the job would be fully there, there would not be a willingness to use one’s thinking skills to the full. So, employees would do what is expected of them, but would not necessarily use their knowledge and experience to resolve issues.

As such, one would have seemingly highly motivated employees who would still want to leave their organisation, still not feel like they belong and still struggle with difficult work situations. The motivation would be there but the engagement would not. This leads to two considerations.

Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all solution to maximising employee engagement

Employers need to measure employee engagement to understand what elements may lead to a disconnect between employees and their job, their organisation and their colleagues.

I will give a practical example. Individuals working in highly regulated economic activities start to feel disengaged not because of any decisions by

employers, but because of the burden (at times even personal responsibility) such a job places on them. Therefore, an external factor would be the cause of disengagement, and it is important for employers to identify such causes.

The second consideration is that employers need to understand the full picture of the employees’ experiences at work on a day-to-day basis. I will again give a practical example.

The traffic situation is Malta is such that several employees need to leave their home for work earlier than they used to, and get back home later than they used to, thereby impinging on their leisure time and causing a great deal of aggravation. Although the traffic experience is an external factor, it contributes to employees having a negative employment experience.

Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all solution to maximising employee engagement. This means that if an employer wants to maintain a high level of engagement among their employees, they need to understand what it is that makes working for them unique and the value, beyond salary and status, they are giving to their employees.