Roger Parry, director, Agenda Consulting Visit the CharityComms website to view slides from past events, see what events we have coming up and to check out what else we do. www.charitycomms.org.uk

1. Understanding the key drivers of
engagement for employees in the UK
Third Sector
Roger Parry, Agenda Consulting
January 2015

2. Agenda Consulting
People Research Consultancy focussing on the not-for-profit
sector. Specialist areas:
 Employee and volunteer surveys
 HR and volunteers benchmarking
 Reward
 HR strategy and effectiveness
 Organisational change

3. Research Database
 We included:
– most recent survey only
– Only UK employees
 Research database comprises:
– 50 surveys from 50 organisations
– 9,100 employees in the UK

4. We use 3 engagement questions
 I would willingly put in extra effort in order to help the
organisation
– Personal discretionary effort
 I am proud to tell people that I work for this organisation
– Personal emotional response
 I would wholeheartedly recommend the organisation to
others as a good place to work
– Advocacy of the organisation

5. % of employees positive
Extra Effort and Proud are high within the sector
Good Place to Work more modest

6. Good Place to Work v Extra Effort
% of employees positive by organisation
Weak relationship (Correlation (r) = 0.34)

7. Conclusions
1. These 3 questions behave differently and clearly measure
different things
2. Engagement is not a precise term – depends on the
questions used
3. We consider that the Good Place To Work question is the
best measure for the Third Sector:
– most demanding/discriminating
– most influenced by organisational factors – a key tenet
of employee engagement

8. Model Results
Leadership, Values and Communication account for
nearly half the impact

9. Conclusions
1. Perceptions of Leadership, Values and Communication
strongly influence Good Place to Work (47% together)
2. Or in other words, perceptions of:
• leadership group and whether they are trustworthy
• strength of values/ethics in practice
• whether there is open and honest communication
– Are very important factors for staff. And influence their
willingness to recommend the organisation as a good place
to work
3. If an organisation wishes to improve the proportion of
employees who would recommend it as a good place to work,
then these three factors are likely to be important.

10. Conclusions
4. Perceptions of Role, Wellbeing and Service have medium
influence (32% together)
5. Perceptions of Reward, Learning and Development,
Management and Colleagues are the weakest (21%)
6. Or in other words, it is quite possible for staff to be happy about
their reward, their learning, their manager and their colleagues
but to be critical of the organisation as a whole
7. The research does not imply that these factors are unimportant
to staff. It does imply that getting these factors right on their
own is unlikely to be sufficient to drive engagement forwards
8. Also, the research does not imply that managers are
unimportant - they have a big impact in driving perceptions.

11. Good Place to Work % positive by
sector, role, length of service

12. Recommendations
1. Include Good Place to Work as one of your engagement
questions
2. Be consistent in the way you measure engagement
3. Pay particular attention to perceptions of Leadership,
Values and Communications and to the ways that
managers influence perceptions
4. Explore the relative impact of the factors in your
organisation – and prioritise the most important
5. Sector Matters – benchmark your organisation against
others in the same sector

13. Contact details
Roger Parry, Director
Clare Harris, Head of Business Development
Agenda Consulting
T: 01865 263720
www.agendaconsulting.co.uk

14. Question per topic
Colleagues: I work with skilled competent people who are
good at their jobs
Communications: This organisation practises open, honest
communication and shares information
Leadership: I trust and respect the leadership group in this
organisation
Learning: This organisation helps me to acquire skills and
knowledge that will benefit my future career
Management: I trust and respect my immediate manager

15. Reward: I am rewarded fairly for the contribution I make in my
particular job
Role: The work that I do gives me a feeling of personal
achievement
Service I believe that this organisation delivers a high quality
service to its external customers
Values: This organisation has strong values and operates to
high ethical standards
Wellbeing: I am badly treated or bullied at work
Question per topic

16. Internal Communications Group
The role of internal
communications in employee
engagement
#CCinternalcomms
Sponsored by

17. Visit the CharityComms website to view
slides from past events, see what
events we have coming up and to
check out what else we do.
www.charitycomms.org.uk