he concept of employee engagement is a familiar one, as are the positive impacts of high employee engagement on the bottom line. Engaged employees are more productive, have lower absenteeism, provide better customer satisfaction, perform their work more safely, and the list goes on. High employee engagement is the key to a healthy organization, isn’t it?

Highly engaged employees are still willing to take that phone call from the recruiter about opportunities at other companies and may even spend their lunch hours searching for a job that offers them something they aren’t getting in their current workplace. That is, engaged employees with a low level (or the wrong type) of commitment to the organization will keep their options open.

Back in the ‘90s, “employee engagement” replaced “job satisfaction” as business leader jargon to describe the key to leveraging workers for bottom-line success. In fact, employee engagement became a leading critical indicator in organizational success and the default survey metric, as it is still today.

As a career HR professional, I have conducted my fair share of employee engagement surveys, reported to senior executives on the status of the firm’s employee engagement, and designed programs and trained managers to perform actions intended to improve employee engagement, and I have always been a true believer that the key to a company’s success is an engaged workforce.

It’s time to modernize and measure the much more reliable metric of employee commitment, according to Andrew Kitchner, founder of employee survey firm New Wave Solutions. While employee engagement and employee commitment are often used interchangeably, they are not the same thing.

Employee engagement refers to a combination of maximum contribution for the company and maximum satisfaction for employees. Where those intersect, employees can sustain a high level of performance that benefits both parties. Commitment, on the other hand, is more of a positive emotional attachment to the organization.

Many organizations conduct business activities specifically to influence employee engagement and reap the oft-cited list of rewards. But without a positive emotional attachment to an organization (i.e., commitment), engaged employees are unlikely to deliver those rewards, let alone stay in place.

Likewise, employee commitment alone won’t deliver results. Depending on the type of commitment experienced by each employee, committed employees are not always engaged.

Thought leaders define three types of employee commitment:

• Normative commitment refers to how much employees feel they should stay with their organization. Normative employees stay because they feel like it’s the right thing to do, and the thought of leaving causes them to feel guilty. This feeling can have a negative effect on their performance.
• Continuance commitment refers to how much employees need to stay with the organization. Employees who experience continuance commitment believe they can’t get hired anywhere else or won’t be able to find comparable or even better pay or benefits anywhere else. These employees can become dissatisfied with their job, and a lack of job satisfaction always leads to a lack of engagement.
• Affective commitment refers to how much employees want to stay with their organization. Employees with high levels of affective commitment identify with the company’s goals, feel like they are valued, and fit into the organization. They work as much for the company’s purpose as for the paycheck, so they are overall great assets to the organization.

Leadership speaker Joe Bassani wrote in a 2018 article on Medium, “Engagement is a transactional state. It is a point-in-time snapshot of employee sentiment. Commitment, on the other hand, is a transformational state, reflecting a long-term relationship between the employee and the organization.” Commitment is the bond employees feel with their organization.

According to Oak Engage, an employee engagement software developer, employees who are emotionally committed to their organization increase profitability by up to 23 percent, reduce absenteeism by 41 percent, and boost productivity by 17 percent.

Consider high employee engagement to be an outcome of affective commitment. Businesses need to foster both if they desire to achieve these results.

Demonstrate commitment to employees. You have to give it to get it, so to speak. Open and transparent communication is a great place to start building trust, which is the foundation of commitment. Clearly communicate company values, vision, and goals to help employees understand how they fit into your big picture. Promote the organization’s purpose and connect employees’ work to that purpose. Be sincere. Don’t pay lip service to values, vision, goals, or purpose. Keep employees informed about changes to strategies, goals, policies, and processes. And encourage two-way communication and innovation through regularly scheduled check-ins, feedback surveys, open door policies, and interactive workshops.

Value individuality and diversity. Create a positive and inclusive workplace that celebrates individuality and diversity where everyone can feel respect, value, and belonging. Feeling valued boosts morale and motivates employees to go above and beyond. Research from BetterUp found that high belonging was linked to a 56 percent increase in job performance, a 50 percent drop in turnover risk, and a 75 percent reduction in sick days.

Business leaders can value individuality and diversity in many ways. Promote a healthy work-life balance by helping employees better manage their personal and professional lives. Empower employees to disconnect after work. Encourage employees to use their holidays and vacation days. Offer flexible hours and remote and hybrid work opportunities.

Optimize teamwork, collaboration, and camaraderie among employees through team-building activities, social events, and wellness programs.

Another method to increase a sense of belonging is to encourage and support employees forming employee resource groups, which can provide support that enhances career development, professional networking opportunities, and overall contributions to personal development in the workplace.

Invest in managers to equip them with the tools and skills needed to inspire their teams. Managers are the primary drivers of commitment and engagement. Some tools managers use to foster inspiration include:

• Acknowledging and rewarding employees’ efforts and accomplishments. Managers often feel challenged to express their appreciation for their employees’ talents and contributions in a way that leaves employees feeling noticed and valued. Provide managers with communication skills and methods for giving employees meaningful financial or life rewards.
• Connecting employees with opportunities for continuous learning and career advancement, such as training programs, mentorship, and career development programs within the company. Employees are more likely to stay engaged and committed when they can see pathways for their own growth.
• Offering constructive feedback so employees understand their strengths, feel appreciated for a job well done, and can become aware of their areas for improvement.
• Empowering employees to take ownership of their work and giving them the autonomy to make decisions.

Growing a culture of affective commitment and high engagement is mutually beneficial. An organization strives for employees who are committed to the mission, whose values align with its values, and who love the work they do. Likewise, employees want to be proud of who they work for, feel personally connected, be part of a team that reflects their own core values, and do work that is valued by the organization.

When you’ve hit that sweet spot, you’ll know it. Committed and engaged employees will likely demonstrate organizational citizenship behavior (OCB).

OCB is the positive and constructive actions and behaviors that employees perform beyond their formal job description. This doesn’t mean “other duties as assigned.” OCB is not assigned; it is voluntary.

It’s anything that employees do, without being asked, to support and benefit their colleagues and the organization as a whole. It can be as simple as picking up a piece of trash that someone else left in the company parking lot, brewing another pot of coffee after noticing the pot is empty, or picking up dinner for a project team who is working late on a deadline.

Dennis Organ first defined OCB in 1988 as “an individual behavior which is not rewarded by a formal reward system… but that, when combined with the same behavior in a group, results in effectiveness.”

In his book Organizational Citizenship Behavior: The Good Soldier Syndrome, Organ describes seven types of OCB:

• Helping. A type of OCB similar to altruism proposed by nursing professor Ann Smith in 1983. Such behavior involves voluntarily helping coworkers in work-related problems. This type also includes acts that improve morale, encourage cooperation, and preserve good relationships in the workplace.
• Sportsmanship. This category involves bearing inconveniences and impositions of work without complaining, being willing to sacrifice personal interest for the good of the work group.
• Organizational loyalty. This category encompasses promoting the company image, remaining committed even under adverse conditions, and defending an organization against external threats.
• Organizational compliance. This type comprises behaviors such as following organizational rules and procedures, complying with organizational values, respect for authority, conscientiousness, and meeting deadlines.
• Individual initiative. Actively trying to find ways to improve individual, group, or organizational functioning, including voluntarily suggesting improvements, acts of creativity, and innovation designed to improve one’s tasks.
• Civic virtue. Responsible, constructive involvement in the political process of the organization. It includes attending non-obligatory meetings, sharing informed opinions with others, being willing to deliver bad news if it is necessary for the good of the organization, and keeping abreast of different issues concerning the organization.
• Self-development. This type of behavior includes self-training or seeking out and taking advantage of advanced training courses. Self-development also encompasses keeping abreast of the latest developments in one’s field and learning new kinds of skills to expand the range of one’s contribution to an organization.

OCB is intrinsically rewarding; employees do not engage in OCB to earn material rewards. Spontaneous OCB is a welcome sign of affective commitment, and employee engagement is likely to follow, leading to greater job satisfaction and productivity.