Building a culture of high employee engagement

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the key drivers for employee engagement within an organization. It seeks to answer the question: what are the keys to improving the level of employee engagement? Design/methodology/approach – A case study illustrates a strategy for employee engagement that was based on research on the key drivers of engagement. Findings – The paper presents practical case study material from Kia Motors – the South Korean automotive manufacturer. It shows how Human Resources (HR) worked to develop a strategy to address very poor levels of employee engagement. A clear set of engagement measures was developed to assess the impact of the engagement strategy. Originality/value – This paper ascertains some of the key drivers of employee engagement as illustrated by the case study. It demonstrates a number of practical tools HR professionals can utilize to build employee engagement within their organizations.