Employee Engagement Part Two: Seven Dimensions of Good Work
As outlined in part one of this blog, Employment Engagement Part One: How to Attract and Retain Employees, the seven dimensions of good work outline the factors in which employees perform better in the workplace. The CIPD Good Work Index is an annual benchmark of good work or job quality in the UK. It provides a key indicator of the current state of work in the UK.
Here is an in-depth description of the seven dimensions of good work.
1. Pay and Benefits
There is no doubt that the amount of pay an employee earns contributes to their work ethic. Similarly, the employee's benefits from the employer, including pension contributions and other employee benefits such as additional annual leave or wellness programmes, can also contribute to the employees’ work ethic.
2. Work-life balance
Work-life balance concerns how employees manage and prioritise work and their time spent with families and other relationships and leisure activities. A fifth of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that their job affects their personal life
3. Contracts
The type of contract an employee receives is a key indicator of why an employee performs better in the workplace. Non-standard contracts, temporary, zero-hours and short hours can be associated with insecurity and unstable working patterns and perhaps an indicator of how an employee performs in the workplace.
4. Job design and the nature of work
Job design can be understood as the content and organisation of one’s work tasks, activities, relationships, and responsibilities. It is evident that job design and the nature of work can be crucial to how people experience job quality. There may be benefits for workers in terms of engagement and wellbeing. There are various factors that may be seen as components of job design, these include:
- Workload (whether one has the right amount of work)
- Job autonomy (level of control over the content, speed, method, and time of work)
- Resources (time, equipment, and suitable space to work effectively)
- Purpose (feeling of doing useful work for the organisation and the wider community)
- Job complexity (whether the job is interesting, requires learning new things)
- Skills (the level of a person-job match in skills and qualifications)
- Career development (whether the job provides opportunities for skill development and career progression)
5. Workplace relationships
There is a strong belief that good relationships at work can impact positively workplace performance. The context of workplace relationships can be influenced by the size of the workplace. The smaller the workplace the more they may benefit from direct and personal interactions in the workplace. In larger organisations, the number of staff may limit workplace relationships outside of an employee’s immediate team. It is evident that good relationships at work can impact positively an organisations performance.
6. Employee Voice
Employee voice and communication between employers and management are widely recognised as important elements of job quality. Having the confidence to speak, be listened to and have an influence are crucial to shaping and delivering other elements of job quality. The most common voice channels in UK workplaces are one-to-one meetings with line managers, team meetings and surveys.
7. Health and Wellbeing
Possibly one of the most important components of good work given the COVID-19 crisis related to employee’s health and wellbeing. During the pandemic, employers have adopted various measures to promote workers mental and physical health and safety during the pandemic.
Related Articles:
Employment Engagement Part one: How to Attract and Retain Employees.
