An "engaged employee" is defined as one who is fully absorbed by and enthusiastic about their work and so takes positive action to further the organization's reputation and interests. An engaged employee has a positive attitude towards the organization and its values. In contrast, a disengaged employee may range from someone doing the bare minimum work (aka 'coasting'), up to an employee who is actively damaging the company's work output and reputation.

An organization with "high" employee engagement might therefore be expected to outperform those with "low" employee engagement.

Employee Engagement first appeared as a concept in management theory in the 1990s, becoming widespread in management practice in the 2000s, but it remains contested. Despite academic critiques, employee engagement practices are well established in the management of human resources and internal communications.

Employee Engagement today has become synonymous with terms like "employee experience" and "employee satisfaction", although satisfaction is a different concept. Whereas engagement refers to work motivation, satisfaction is an employee's attitude about the job - whether they like it or not. The relevance is much more due to the vast majority of new-generation professionals in the workforce who have a higher propensity to be "distracted" and "disengaged" at work. A recent survey by StaffConnect suggests that an overwhelming number of enterprise organizations today (74.24%) were planning to improve employee experience in 2018.

Definitions
William Kahn provided the first formal definition of personnel engagement as "the harnessing of organization member's selves to the work roles; in engagement, people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally during role performances".

In 1993, Schmidt et al. proposed a bridge between the pre-existing concept of "job satisfaction" and employee engagement with the definition: "an employee's involvement with; commitment to, and satisfaction with work. Employee engagement is a part of employee retention". The definition integrates the classic constructs of job satisfaction and organizational commitment.

Elements of Employee Engagement
According to Stein, 4 elements determine employee engagement, and they include the following;

1. Commitment to the Organization: Are the employees "bought-in" to the organization's mission and do they see a future at the company?
2. Identifies with the Organization: Does the employee's belief, values, and goals align with their role and where they want to go in the future?
3. Feels satisfied with their Job: Is the employee feeling accomplished at the end of the day and are proud of what they do?
4. Feels energised at the Work: They want to show up to the job and they are motivated to work all day and not counting down the hours until the end of the day.

Generating Employee Engagement
Increasing engagement is a primary objective of organizations seeking to understand and measure engagement. Gallup defines employee engagement as being highly involved in and enthusiastic about one's work and workplace; engaged workers are psychological owners, drive high performance and innovation, and move the organization forward. Gallup's global measure of employee engagement finds that just 21% of workers are engaged.

Drivers of Employee Engagement
Some additional points from research into drivers of employee engagement are as below;

• Employee's personal resources
• Employee perceptions of job importance
• Employee clarity of job expectations
• Career advancement/Improvement Opportunities
• Reglar feedback and dialogue with superiors
• Quality of working relationships with peers, superiors, and subordinates
• Perceptions of the ethos and values of the organization
• Effective internal employee communications