The recent research conducted by The Human Resource Practice, into employee engagement in South Africa contained both good news and bad news for employers.

On the one hand, the research highlighted that employees in South Africa are more engaged than their global counterparts. The Towers Perrin Global Workforce Report (2008) reported that 62% of almost 90,000 respondents worldwide were engaged or enrolled, and 38% were disengaged or disenchanted. In South Africa, 76% of 767 respondents were fully engaged, 23% were undecided and  disengaged (i.e. 13% were undecided and 11% disengaged).

On the other hand, there were differences in ‘intention to stay' depending on how people viewed their current career status. The research showed that just under half (47%) of the respondents stated they were ready for a new job at a new level and 17% said they were ready for a new job at the same level. Those who perceived themselves to be ‘growing in their current job' had the highest intention to stay and those who perceived themselves to ‘need a bigger job at a new level' had the lowest intention to stay.

In addition, African participants showed lower intention to stay than White respondents regardless of career status. Younger participants showed less intention to stay regardless of career status. ‘Intention to stay' seemed, therefore, to be significantly influenced by perceptions of career status, racial group and age.

So, what does this mean in the context of the current economic situation and limitations on job mobility?

• Firstly, employees may be looking for greater meaning in their work because they are under financial pressure to retain it. Respondents who frequently thought of quitting were mainly Africans under 30, graduates, people at lower job levels or with up to 10 years experience or ready for new job challenges at the next level. This profile poses a risk to employers from an employment equity and business continuity perspectives in terms of the labour market availability of mission-critical competence and experience.
• Secondly, if South African managers did more to positively influence the extent to which employees connect to their jobs and the organisation, productivity would improve, as engaged employees perform better which will in turn assist the company ride out the economic crisis. It would also boost employee retention rates, because engaged employees are more likely to remain with the company, ensuring it has the skills and experience to capitalise on the inevitable upturn.

So what does this teach us about managing employees in these turbulent economic times?

• To design meaningful work, creative, internal communication methods need to be deployed to demonstrate the link between organisational strategic priorities and individual performance goals.
• Cascading of performance goals are necessary to ensure that there is alignment from the top, strategic goals, through to the bottom where most goals will be focused on continuous improvement in routine work. This cascading process means organisations are able to follow the flow of how work is delegated down the organisational structure: the subordinate's goals must support the supervisor / manager / team leader's goals.
• Career conversations are critical to engage employees across the different levels. Line managers often lack these critical conversational skills. Line managers need to be provided with critical conversational and coaching skills to conduct these discussions effectively.
• Line managers therefore have a key role to play in retaining valued employees as, with an upturn in the economy, those employees with a strong sense of resourcefulness will look for more meaningful employment.

These results can provide a guide to make employee engagement part of the "way things are done" in organisations.