Key drivers of employee engagement in a South African retail environment

Abstract

Employee engagement is a relatively new concept but given the clear link between an engaged workforce and high-performance organisations with a competitive advantage, it is of significant importance for business leaders to consider the key drivers of employee engagement when it comes to developing new business strategies in an increasingly competitive globally competitive environment such as retail. Despite the recent focus on the construct of employee engagement, there is a gap in the literature relating qualitative exploratory research identifying the drivers of employee engagement in the context of South African retail stores. Qualitative, exploratory research methods were adopted to gain new insights into the factors that influence employee engagement in the context of South African retail stores. Data for the study was gathered through twelve semi-structured interviews conducted with senior store management of a sample of pre-selected high engagement stores. A homogeneous purposive sampling method was used as the focus was on obtaining specific insights from a particular group of pre-selected high engagement cases. As Employee engagement is a critical determinant of business success, this study aimed to determine what the key drivers are of employee engagement in these top-performing stores as this knowledge would be crucial in replicating the performance of these stores throughout the organisation studied. The findings added insights and depth to the existing literature. The complexity of employee engagement and the drivers and retractors impacting on employee engagement suggested the need for a holistic model that could be adopted in understanding the drivers of employee engagement and interaction of these drivers within the bigger organisational environment. This model depicts the interdependence of identified drivers of employee engagement in a way that can be used by businesses to develop a process to address the lack of engagement in organisations in general. It also adds to the literature in the field of employee engagement.