The perceived key factors that promote employee engagement in a South African financial services company.

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.