What is the difference between employee satisfaction and employee engagement

It will help to reduce voluntary attrition, strengthen your employer brand, and accelerate growth, unhindered by workforce-related roadblocks. What is your assessment of the difference between employee engagement and job satisfaction? Tell us on Facebook , LinkedIn , or Twitter. By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

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Enter a Email Address. Choose your interests Get the latest news, expert insights and market research, sent straight to your inbox. Newsletter Topics Select minimum 1 topic. Employee Engagement vs. Job Satisfaction: Key Differences and Metrics. Job Satisfaction Job satisfaction can be defined as the sense of contentment one feels as a direct result of being employed in a particular role.

Employee Engagement Employee engagement can be defined as the level of involvement and connection one feels in their job.

Factors Affecting Job Satisfaction Typically, it is the monetary and associated factors that determine how satisfied employees are with their job.

The top four elements include: 1. Compensation The first and probably the biggest driver of job satisfaction is compensation. Benefits Supporting the advantages of good pay, you can offer a comprehensive benefits package that takes care of physical and mental well-being, financial wellness, childcare, and family coverage. Factors Affecting Employee Engagement The drivers of employee engagement are slightly different.

Inspiring leadership Employee engagement starts at the top. Internal communication Communication plays a significant role in how engaged your employees are, especially if you have a large distributed workforce. A culture of diversity To ensure maximum engagement for all individuals, diverse work culture is essential.

The top three contributors to job satisfaction were respectful treatment, total compensation, and the trust between employees and senior management. This is consistent across genders, generations, and job levels. Now take a look at these findings on employee engagement in the report: The U. This is a marginal improvement over previous years — employee engagement stood at 3. Employees are more engaged with their work on an individual level, reporting a 4.

Measure these metrics to assess job satisfaction To pinpoint the exact level of job satisfaction among your workforce, look at the more tangible aspects of your company. Measure the following three metrics to get a clear picture of job satisfaction: 1. Referral volumes Someone satisfied with their job is likely to recommend others to join as well.

Social media reviews Employee reviews on social networks like Glassdoor or Indeed can reveal valuable data on job satisfaction. Measure these metrics to gauge employee engagement Employee engagement has a broader purview than satisfaction. Track the following three parameters to ascertain how engaged employees are at your company: 1.

Offer acceptance rates Offer acceptance rates reflect the candidate engagement factor at your company. Total health index THI This is a relatively new concept that aims to capture three traits of employee engagement. Fig 1. Employee Relations Job Satisfaction. Share This Article:. Chiradeep BasuMallick Technical Writer. Chiradeep is a content marketing professional, a startup incubator, and a tech journalism specialist. He has over 11 years of experience in mainline advertising, marketing communications, corporate communications, and content marketing.

He has worked with a number of global majors and Indian MNCs, and currently manages his content marketing startup based out of Kolkata, India. He studied literature, has a degree in public relations and is an independent contributor for several leading publications.

Stay Ahead! Get the latest industry news, expert insights and market research tailored to your interests! Join The Conversation. Throughout the years, I assumed that employee engagement is simply ensuring that employees are paid enough to stay happy and to not look for other jobs.

This is a rather simplistic thought that does not actually hold true in reality. Unfortunately, a lot of companies still have this traditional way of thinking that making employees happy is enough to guarantee their engagement.

That said, what is the difference between job satisfaction and employee engagement? Motivation se ts job satisfaction and employee engagement apa rt. Job satisfaction is achieved when an employee is motivated by external factors such as salary or benefits. Employee engagement only occurs when an employee has a deeper sources of motivation, such as contributing to the shared company vision or becoming the best in their field. Distinguishing between these two related concepts can be hard.

However, by digging deeper into what motivates your employees, it becomes easier to see whether they are engaged or simply satisfied by their work. Understanding what exactly motivates your employees is key to determining whether you are engaging them enough. Your employees can be driven to work for various reasons, but they can all be classified as either external or internal motivation.

Many office workers readily admit that material resources motivate them. Many of them sought out career paths that are known to pay handsomely, and they considered salary as one of their main criteria for screening which jobs to apply to.

Others wanted to have jobs that came with lots of benefits, such as free housing or generous vacation leaves. To clarify, there is nothing wrong with using external motivation. Offering a large enough salary, complete with generous benefits and bonuses, will indeed make most employees very satisfied. Conversely, it will be hard to gain and retain good employees if you cannot at least match the offers of other companies.

External motivation is much easier to achieve than internal motivation, especially for well-established companies with abundant resources. The problem with internal motivation occurs when companies stop at this point. Many of these companies fall into the trap of thinking that money and happiness is the only thing that employees care about.

They will get the job done, and nothing more. True engagement occurs when employees are driven by more intrinsic factors. For example, many people derive a sense of achievement from contributing to a shared vision. They can with their company vision and find that it runs parallel to their own vision in life. They are then motivated to help turn it into reality.

Some people may have a desire to climb the corporate ladder as they get to hold higher leadership positions. They get satisfaction from leading teams in the pursuit of a common goal, or perhaps they want to increase their influence and feel like they are a significant part of the company workforce. Others are motivated by competition. They love the thrill of pushing themselves to the limit, and they wish to prove to themselves that they are one of the best.

Inspiring people to work for reasons such as these are harder to cultivate in your employees as it requires more active participation on your part, but it is worth it in the end. Engaged employees will work harder and continually challenge themselves to do better in pursuit of their goals.

In contrast, those that are merely satisfied will be content with doing the bare minimum. Why would they exert more effort when they already have what they want, mainly a large salary? The most straightforward way to determine the levels of job satisfaction and employee engagement is to ask your employees. Set some time to talk to them, and ask them to answer as sincerely as possible. Doing the same thing at work every single day gets tiring quickly.

Embrace remote working and flexible scheduling. Great perks can create engaged employees. You may also want to look into flexible scheduling. Your workers will be happier if they can work when and where they want. Plan team-building activities regularly. Employees are more likely to be engaged when they get along with their coworkers.

Schedule team-building activities — like happy hours or potlucks — so that your employees can get to know each other better. You never know when an amazing friendship will be made over a beer.

Treat your staffers like adults. You hired your workers to do a job. They are talented enough to tackle their work responsibilities without having to worry about you peering over their shoulder every five minutes. Treat your employees like adults and let them enjoy some measure of autonomy. If you want to take your company to the next level, you should strive to produce as many engaged employees as you can. A few investments in engagement can go a long way toward strengthening the foundation of your company — which translates into a happier workforce and a healthier bottom line.

First, some brief definitions: Employee engagement is something that occurs when workers are committed to helping their companies achieve all of their goals.

Engaged employees are motivated to show up to work every day and do everything within their power to help their companies succeed. Employee satisfaction is the state of a worker enjoying their job — but not necessarily being engaged with it.