The perceived key factors that promote employee engagement in a South African financial services company.
Date
2016
Authors
Kistan, Aven Vengadasen
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Abstract
When an economy is growing and businesses are surpassing set objectives, all people
within that ecosystem, albeit nationally or globally, are better emotionally connected to
organisations, and it becomes easier to engage employees. The collective sentiment
within nations and companies is generally positive and cheerful, where people feel that
they belong to a high-performance entity. However, when hard economic times arrive,
the opposite effect is experienced within a business, thus leaving its people in a lessthan-
festive mood. Disengagement then becomes a menace in business and can result
in lower-than-expected performance.
Employee engagement is defined as the positive attitudes and emotional connection
held by employees towards their company, in delivering their discretionary effort to the
achievement of business goals. Employee engagement is critical to a business, as it is
envisaged to have the ability to predict employee outcomes, organisational success,
and overall financial performance. The purpose of this study is to uncover the key
factors that promote employee engagement in a financial services company in South
Africa, namely, Aon South Africa (SA). Aon SA is part of a global company that provides
risk management, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, human resource solutions and
outsourcing services. This study has been conducted within Aon SA only, specifically
within the head office in Johannesburg.
A qualitative approach was adopted for this study, where 14 in-depth and semistructured
interviews were conducted across all employee levels in Aon SA. These
interviews were designed to discover the most salient factors that promote employee
engagement.
The findings identify the key factors that promote employee engagement within Aon SA
as employee recognition needs, self-drive, communication, better opportunities and
leadership’s professionalism, motivation and interactions with people.
Description
MBA
Keywords
Employee motivation -- South Africa.Financial services industry -- South Africa.