Employee engagement ‘centre of business plan’

Engagement of employees about the future of a business is an essential step for employers to take, a new report has said.

The MacLeod Review of employee engagement noted that strong relationships within a company are at the centre of a successful business plan.

Such practices support the potential of individuals, with employee engagement critical to innovation and competitiveness, particularly in a downturn, David MacLeod – a non executive director of the Ministry of Justice and the Department for International Development – stated.

"Employers in all parts of the economy can make a success of employee engagement through culture change, rather than investing significant financial resources," he added.

Get our essential weekday HR news and updates. Email This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Work Email Keep up with the latest in HR... This field is hidden when viewing the form Optin_form This field is hidden when viewing the form Optin_date Year Month Day This field is hidden when viewing the form Batch_Newsletter

One of the recommendations in the report is that by March 2010, a range of practical support should be given to those organisations which want to improve levels of employee engagement.

Reassuring employees through engagement about their future at a company could be important, after recent figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that the unemployment rate continued to climb at the start of this year.